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After months of parent complaints, school officials reassigned a first grade teacher at Washington Communications and Technology Magnet School to another job in the district Friday afternoon, according to several people familiar with the move.

Rita Kimball, principal at Washington, said the teacher, whose name the Daily Planet decided not to release, will not be working at her school any longer. Kimball said she did not know where the teacher will work, or what type of job the instructor will hold.

Barry Fike, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, the local teacher’s union, would not comment on the instructor’s new placement, and school district officials did not return calls from the Daily Planet requesting information on the transfer.

Superintendent Michele Lawrence could not be reached before the Daily Planet’s deadline, but according to Kimball, the superintendent’s office engineered the transfer.

Parents happy about the reassignment had argued that the instructor lacked control of the classroom, allowed students to wander out of class, left a child unattended in class on at least one occasion, and failed to teach the students properly.

“We are pleased, and for us, it’s a big sigh of relief that we no longer have to fight this battle,” said Judy Greenspan, parent of a first grader in the teacher’s class. “We look forward to them getting a competent teacher in the classroom after the holidays.”

Still, parents said they did not win the reassignment until they threatened to pull their kids out of the classroom on Monday, and broadly publicize their concerns.

Parents said the district should have acted much sooner to remove a teacher who has been the subject of complaints for years.

“Mrs. Kimball, she knew about the situation,” said Shawn Cooks, whose daughter had the instructor two years ago for kindergarten, and was assigned to the teacher again this year, for first grade.

Kimball offered no comment on the extent of parental complaints in previous years, citing the teacher’s right to privacy. But, she said she understood the parents’ concerns.

“I think it’s just really hard for parents when they feel like things aren’t turning out right for their children,” Kimball said. However, she suggested that a teacher’s rights as an employee must be respected.

“We need to make things happen for children,” Kimball said, “but we’re also bound by rules and laws and due process for human beings.”

The most recent teachers’ contract, ratified in the spring, stipulates that an instructor can only be fired after receiving an unsatisfactory review at the end of a school year, and then taking another year to improve.

Greenspan said the district should have given the teacher an unsatisfactory review in previous years, setting the stage for removal. “I think the problem is the result of the district’s failure to evaluate a bad teacher,” said Greenspan.

Pamela Springer, whose son moved from the instructor’s class to another first grade class in early October, called for a complete change in the rules, allowing for swifter removal. “The process has to change to protect kids,” she said.

Parents have been volunteering in the classroom, meeting with school officials, writing letters, and filing official complaints since school opened, charging that their children were in danger in the classroom.

“We had real concerns for the safety of our children,” said Joseph Wakelee-Lynch, who was able to transfer his daughter to Berkeley Arts Magnet at Whittier three weeks into the school year.

Wakelee-Lynch said he watched a child wander out of the classroom unnoticed during the first week of school, and filed an official complaint with the district based on the incident.

Another parent, Tara Burton, said she approached the school on Nov. 5 and found one student standing by himself, upset, on a wooden ramp near the class, and another, Cooks’ daughter, sitting alone in the classroom, just as the fire alarm sounded.

“Leaving a kid in a classroom unattended, during a fire alarm at that, was the last straw,” Burton said.

Parents also complained that the instructor did not provide any structure in the classroom, and could not control the students. They said this lack of discipline effected their children’s ability to learn.

“In that kind of environment, my daughter has a hard time learning,” said Wakelee-Lynch. “She needed more stability.”

Springer said her son began acting out because of the lack of discipline in the classroom.

“I can’t tell you how exhausting it was for me to come home to a kid who has learned that he can act out and be disruptive,” Springer said.

Parents said their children lost the desire to learn under the previous instructor, and argued that it is essential to get a talented, new teacher in the classroom as soon as possible.

“It’s important to get a competent teacher now, and repair the damage that has been done,” Greenspan said.

Explore the metaphysics of the Christmas Story. 540-8844, patricia@newthoughtunity.org.

Feldenkrais Chair Class for

Seniors

1 p.m.

North Berkeley Senior Center

1901 Hearst Ave.

Gentle movement class for older adults. Free. ellmor1@home.com.

Feldenkrais Floor Class for

Seniors

2 p.m.

North Berkeley Senior Center

1901 Hearst Ave.

Gentle movement class for older adults. Free. ellmor1@home.com.

Berkeley Camera Club

7:30 p.m.

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda

Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 525-3565.

Wednesday, Dec. 19

Blanket Drive for

Afghan Refugees

8:30 - 9:30 a.m.

2:30 - 3:30 p.m.

Black Pine Circle School, Lower Campus

2027 Seventh St.

4:30 - 5:30 p.m.

Black Pine Circle School, Upper Campus

2015 Sixth St.

A large truck will be parked outside the lower school for collection of clean, serviceable, blankets, quilts, and sleeping bags. These will be delivered to the American Friends Service Committee in San Francisco, then shipped to refugee camps in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. 526-4771, nanscape@yahoo.com.

Feldenkrais Classes for

Seniors

10:30 and 11:45 a.m.

Jewish Community Center

1414 Walnut

Gentle movement class for older adults. Free. ellmor1@home.com

Lecture Series on Women

Medieval Mystics

7:30 - 9 p.m.

All Souls Parish

2220 Cedar St.

Three Women Mystics: An Advent Lecture Series. Exploration of their spiritual quests designed to offer a new sense of spiritual possibilities in modern times. Free. Supervised childcare will be provided. 848-1755.

Thursday, Dec. 20

Blanket Drive for Afghan

Refugees

daytime

Black Pine Circle School

2027 Seventh St.

A large truck will be parked outside the lower school for collection of clean, serviceable, blankets, quilts, and sleeping bags. These will be delivered to the American Friends Service Committee in San Francisco and then shipped to refugee camps in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. 526-4771, nanscape@yahoo.com.

Islamic Cultural Celebration

7:30 p.m.

La Peña Cultural Center

3105 Shattuck Ave.

Mark the end of Ramadan with music, poetry, and stories from various parts

of the Islamic world. Proceeds will be donated to RAWA. $10. 849-2568, www.lapena.org.

Family Day at the Museum. The tours will present over 250 objects from the Museum’s permanent collections on display in the major exhibition “Telling Time: To Everything There is a Season.” 549-6950 www.magnesmuseum. org

Professor Smart shrinks his head, has toilet paper flying, juggles and has the audience’s hair standing on end all the while demonstrating the principles of physics. $3 - $7. 642-5132, www.lawrencehallofscience.org

Tilden Regional Park, in the parking lot that dead ends at the Little Farm

Join a few seniors, the Tuesday Tilden Walkers, for a stroll around Jewel Lake and the Little Farm Area. Enjoy the beauty of the wildflowers, turtles, and warblers, and waterfowl.

215-7672; members.home.co

m/teachme99/tilden/index.html

Berkeley Farmers’ Market

2-7 p.m.

Derby Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street

548-3333

Berkeley Camera Club

7:30 p.m.

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda

Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 525-3565.

Wednesdays

Toddler Storytime

7 p.m.

West Berkeley Library

1125 University Ave

For families with children three years or younger, a program to expose the youngest readers to multicultural stories, songs and finger plays.

Every Wednesday through Nov 28

Thursdays

Free Anonymous HIV Testing (?) (?)

5:15 - 7:15 p.m.

Check in 5 - 7 p.m.

University Health Services

Tang Center

2222 Bancroft Way

Drop-in services and limited space is available.

Call 642-7202

Fridays

Saturdays

Berkeley Farmers’ Market

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Center Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street

548-3333

Poets Juan Sequeira and Wanna Thibideux Wright

Free Sailboat Rides

1 - 4 p.m.

Cal Sailing Club

Berkeley Marina

The Cal Sailing Club, a nonprofit sailing and windsurfing cooperative, gives free rides on a first come, first served basis. Wear warm clothes and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children must be at least five years old and accompanied by an adult. 208-5460, www.cal-sailing.org.

December 14, the Downtown Berkeley Association submitted 622 petition signatures to the Mayor and City Councilmembers opposing General Plan Policy T-35 and urging a balanced approach to parking in the downtown. Within a two week period, downtown businesses collected these signatures from their customers. Around 90 percent of the signatures are Berkeley residents.

The petition calls for: encouraging the use of public transit; preserving the existing parking supply; studying the need for new parking in the downtown; removing General Plan policy T-35 that prohibits the city from spending funds to increase the number of parking spaces in the Downtown.

“Every Inch a King” Jan. 11 through Feb. 9: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m.; Three sisters have to make a decision as their father approaches death in this comedy presented by the Central Works Theater Ensemble. $8 - $18. LeValls Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. 558-1381

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. 239-2252 www.acteva.com/go/havefun

“Images of Innocence and Beauty” Dec. 19 through Jan. 8: An exhibit featuring Kathleen Flannigan’s drawing and furniture - boxes, tables, and mirrors, all embellished with images of the beauty and innocence of the natural world. Addison Street Windows, 2018 Addison St.

“From With These Walls” Jan. 5: Educational studio opening celebration gallery show of student works in steel, bronze, aluminum, cast iron, glass, neon, ceramic, stone and paper; jewelry. The Crucible, 1036 Ashby St. (Entrance is one block south on Murray St.) 843-5511, fran@thecrucible.org.

“Ansel Adams in the University of California Collections” Dec. 12 through Mar. 10: A selection of photographs and memorabilia presenting a different perspective on Adam’s career as one of the leading figures in American photography. Wed, Fri. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thur. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. $4- $6. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot by 40 foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Mon. through Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu

After more than two years of public meetings and workshops, the City Council is expected to approve three sections of the Draft General Plan tonight. In question, however, is whether the council will move forward on four other proposed amendments, put forward by Ecocity Builders.

Once approved, the plan will govern development, housing and environmental management for the next 20 years.

While only the housing section of the draft plan faces a state-imposed deadline of Dec. 31, the council agreed two weeks ago to also approve the transportation and land-use sections tonight during its last meeting of the year.

Prior to approving various proposed amendments, the council will have to work through several controversial policies, including a two-year moratorium on studying the need for additional public parking downtown, a policy calling for the definition of “cultural use” for downtown commercial space – the inclusion of cultural space means a developer can builder higher than zoning permits – and a series of amendments proposed by the nonprofit Ecocity Builders.

Ecocity’s mission is to reshape cities and towns to environmentally benefit community centers and surrounding areas. At the heart of its strategy is the theory of increasing density in central locations, thereby allowing the restoration of surrounding natural resources, such as open space, creeks and wetlands.

Headquartered in Berkeley with about 200 members, Ecocity Builders submitted four policies to the City Council as possible amendments to the draft plan’s land-use section. According to Ecocity President Richard Register, the four amendments have been endorsed by more than 100 educational institutions, nonprofits and businesses.

The amendments would add language promoting energy efficient and environmentally sustainable building designs and increase housing density in the downtown and along transit corridors while restoring and daylighting creeks citywide.

Planning Commission Chair Rob Wrenn said many Ecocity proposals, such as creek restoration and green building practices, were already included in the Draft General Plan and that the four amendments had been rejected by the Planning Commission because the commissioners thought they were too complex to implement fairly and they presented a threat to the development of affordable housing.

While some aspects of the proposed amendments have been included in amendments put forward by councilmembers, Senior Planner Andrew Thomas suggested the council approve the land-use element of the draft plan and then convene a task force to study proposed amendments.

“The financial aspects for transfer development rights would be very complex, perhaps too complex for the council to simply add to the plan without more study,” Thomas said adding that the General Plan can be amended up to four times a year. “The task force can carefully consider the possibility and then make recommendations to the Planning Commission and the City Council.”

According to Register, one of the most important amendments is the Transfer of Development Rights policy. The TDR would allow developers to add as many as five floors to downtown developments in exchange for purchasing property on or near Berkeley creeks for the purpose of daylighting or restoration.

The Draft General Plan, as it is currently written, calls for the daylighting and restoration of the city’s five creeks as well as restricted development over and nearby waterways.

But Register said a TDR policy would additionally facilitate creek restoration by offering incentives to developers. The policy would increase downtown building heights from a maximum of seven stories permitted in the draft plan – and also in force today – to as many as 12 stories. Register also advocates increasing height limits on transportation corridors, such as University and San Pablo avenues, from four stories to seven or eight stories.

“Unless you add higher density to these areas, you’re not going to solve the environmental problems facing us in the future,” he said.

But Wrenn said during the 50 public hearings, meetings and workshops the Planning Commission held over the last two years, the public did not express a willingness to increase downtown height limits.

“Transfer Development Rights have shown success in rural areas but they won’t work so well in a built-up urban area, especially one where property values are so high,” Wrenn said.

Thomas agreed saying the exchange of increased building height for a section of restored creek is a “very complicated” thing to work out.

“It’s not like the affordable housing bonus where it’s cut and dry,” Thomas said. “In that case it’s very clear that if a developer includes 20 percent affordable housing in a project, the overall density can be increased by 25 percent.”

Thomas said there is no similar ratio with creek restoration and that is why he suggested a task force to study the issue and possibly come up with practical recommendations that might make the TDR policy, or a variation of it, possible.

Wrenn said another reason the TDR policy – and another Ecocity proposal that would have allowed developers to add floors to downtown projects by donating to an environmental restoration fund – was not added to the draft plan was a concern that the policies would compete with the city goal of creating more affordable housing by giving developers more choices for density bonuses.

“We didn’t want to dilute the affordable housing density bonus,” he said. “We really want to encourage first and foremost the development of affordable housing as we didn’t think the TDR was appropriate to that.”

Register argued that if the downtown height limits were increased enough, they could create more affordable housing and restore environmental habitat.

“If you don’t allow increased density, I suppose it’s true,” he said then added. “It’s a simple matter of allowing higher buildings in the downtown.”

The letters from density flack Richard Register usually make me mad, but the most recent one made me cruel. It made me want to give him a concertina, a guitar, a mike stand and mikes, a large salad, a hot apple pie, and watch him take the bus over to San Francisco’s Laurel Street in the rain.

The “EcoCities Amendment” is a disguise for developer profits at the expense of real people with real transportation needs. Let’s get real about wheels, or risk sacrificing the livability of our beautiful town.

A pedestrian was reportedly hit by a car Friday morning at the intersection of Russell Street and Claremont Avenue, the very spot where flags had been placed with much fanfare the day before in order to make pedestrians more visible as they cross the street.

As a result, some are asking if flags are enough, and if more radical traffic re-engineering might be necessary on busy Claremont Avenue.

The details of the accident, according to The Associated Press, are as follows:

Pedestrian Susan Wood, 53, was struck at about 10 a.m. Friday by Maya Bacha of Pleasant Hill, who was driving a Jeep. Bacha was cited for failing to yield the right of way to a pedestrian. Wood sustained minor injuries.

Police have not yet released a report on the incident and will not comment.

One other pedestrian vs. vehicle accident at the Russell Street and Claremont Avenue intersection was reported in November 1999, according to statistics covering the five years between Jan. 1, 1994 and Dec. 31, 2000. During that time, 17 vehicle vs. vehicle accidents were recorded. Seven injuries and no deaths were recorded as a result of the accidents.

Councilmember Polly Armstrong, the force behind the flags popping up at various intersections around the city, still believes that the heightened pedestrian visibility will pay off in the end. Her district covers the intersection of Claremont and Ashby avenues – a block north of Claremont Avenue and Russell Street – through which 20,000 cars pass each day.

The councilmember said the flags were never intended as “the solution to pedestrian safety.” That’s up to drivers who need to pay more attention. And to pedestrians who, even though they’re carrying a flag, still need to make eye contact with drivers of oncoming vehicles to make sure they’re seen, she said.

“It’s just a check mark on the side of the power of pedestrians (vs. cars),” Armstrong said.

But there are those, such bicycle activist Sarah Syed, who say greater changes need to be made, such as re-engineering Claremont Avenue. A proposal came to the Transportation Commission a few years ago to make a section of the busy Claremont Avenue south of Ashby Avenue a two-lane, rather than four-lane street. Syed said it would have slowed down traffic. (The stretch of Claremont where the pedestrian was hit is already a two-lane street.)

The plan was opposed by nearby neighbors and eventually defeated in the Transportation Commission.

Re-engineering “is likely to be more effective than putting out little flags,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who had no plans at present to bring back the controversial lane-reduction proposal to City Council.

Dean Metzger, who lives in the Claremont neighborhood, recalled the fight over the plan. “It was going to back the traffic up to Oakland,” he said. “It’s the only street that still works in Berkeley.”

The re-engineering might have slowed down the traffic, Armstrong said, but the question is not speed, at that intersection. Rather, it’s a problem of distracted drivers talking on their cell phones or changing CDs.

Armstrong said she’s had a positive response to the flags from neighbors living near Russell and Claremont. “We’ve just got to keep trying. We all have to be more careful.” she said.

Berkeley should include ALL FOUR provisions of the proposed Ecocity Amendment in its’ General Plan update. Fears that the EcoAmendment would transform Berkeley into a glorified farm hostile to adequate housing, neighborhood integrity, and historic preservation are rendered groundless by a reasonably awake reading of the actual Amendment or a conversation with its sponsors.

A significant net increase in affordable and market-rate housing as part of a viable, lively, diverse, “mixed-income/mixed-use,” and transit-oriented development downtown, as well as in other districts, would appear to be a cornerstone of the amendment, if what I’m reading is English in Policy Provision No. 3.

And homeowners in Berkeley can relax – Policy No. 4 charts a course of gradual, voluntary, market-driven conversion of certain creek corridors and likely park and community garden sites into urban greenspace, which ought to add to surrounding residential property values. It is not out to destroy the value of single-family homes, or gobble up our cozy neighborhoods. On the contrary, we’d gain a number of additional assets in the mold of the Karl Linn Community Garden and Strawberry Creek Park.

No, the EcoAmendment doesn’t seem to be out to assassinate our architectural heritage. The preservation and re-use of our John Galen Howards, Julia Morgans, and other historic buildings is readily acknowledged to be desirable and completely consistent with ecological redevelopment by none other than Richard Register and Kirstin Miller, principals in the EcoAmendment’s parent organization, Ecocity Builders.

Sales for durable goods rose an amazing 12.8 percent during the month of October 2001, the largest-ever increase in sales in U.S. history. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Consumer Index Report,(http://www.census.gov/indicator/www/m3/adv/priorrel.htm) the vast majority of those purchases (more than 9 percent, or $15.3 billion) were the sale of cars and trucks. The bulk of those sales were for pick-up trucks and sport utility vehicles, or SUVs.

Heavy advertising campaigns equating the purchase of a new truck or SUV with patriotism, combined with interest-free financing helped to spur record sales. However, the impact of these vehicles on the environment has yet to be calculated.

The average SUV gets 17.5 miles-per-gallon (averaged between all makes and models’ city and highway driving, according to the U.S. Department of Energy – see http://www.fueleconomy. gov). By giving up a car that gets 25 miles per gallon, you will lose seven and one-half miles for every gallon of gas you burn. In an 18-gallon tank, that SUV will stop 135 miles short. Over the life of the vehicle, say, 100,000 miles, this will cost the owner an extra 1,714 gallons of gasoline to drive the same distance. At a conservative $1.55 per gallon, that’s more than a year’s tuition at UC Berkeley.

It should also be noted that burning those 1,714 gallons of gasoline will produce more than 17 tons of greenhouse gasses, which contribute to global warming. The resultant air pollution will contribute to the destruction of the ozone, and to an increase in diseases related to increased vehicle emissions, such as asthma and cancer. And that is assuming the vehicle’s mileage doesn’t decline as it ages.

Is there a better way to buy a new, and perhaps more reliable vehicle than to purchase a vehicle with so many downsides? New passenger vehicles have just as many safety features, and get better mileage than SUVs and trucks. The Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for passenger cars, currently set at 27.5 mpg, has not been increased since the 1986 model year, but there are Congressional efforts aimed at increasing the standard to around 40 mpg. To find out how much money you’d save by getting 40 mpg over your existing rate, go to the Sierra Club’s web site http://www.sierraclub.org/iwantmympg/calculator.asp and perform the calculation. Increased mileage improves the air we all breathe, and will save you thousands of dollars during the life of the vehicle.

Hybrid vehicles are a realistic option, and are now available from several manufacturers. These vehicles use a combination of gas and electricity – when the electric batteries need charging, the gasoline motor takes over to run the vehicle and charge the batteries. Once the batteries are charged, the gasoline engine switches off, allowing the electric motor to take over again. At this time, there are no hybrid vehicles that allow the user to plug in the car and charge the batteries using household current or solar energy.

Other alternative fuel vehicles include the fuel cell vehicle. Fuel cells are powered by hydrogen, and are even more efficient than electric hybrid vehicles. However, hydrogen is extremely flammable – the flame from burning hydrogen is ultraviolet light and invisible to the eye. Many details still need to be worked out to make it safe for the consumer, but progress is being made. Recently, a German scientist developed a method for creating hydrogen on board in small amounts, eliminating some of the dangers of carrying large quantities of hydrogen. (See http://www.dwelle.de for details.)

If you are in need of a vehicle, there is an easy way to compare mileage for all makes and models of cars from 1986 and newer. The Department of Energy has teamed up with the Environmental Protection Agency and created a web site (http://www.fueleconomy.gov) that will let you compare mileage in all categories of cars and trucks. This is especially handy when considering purchasing a used vehicle – many older vehicles, such as the1994 Honda Civic, get better mileage than new vehicles (the 1994 Civic gets 40 mpg in the city, 47 on the highway.)

Car sharing programs in the Bay Area offer the convenience of driving a new car without the hassle of ownership. Using a car-share program means you don’t have to pay for gasoline or oil, monthly car payments or insurance payments. You only pay for the time (about $2.50 per hour) and mileage (about $0.45 per mile) you put on the vehicle, plus a small monthly fee ($10.00 currently) and a refundable deposit of $300.00. Contact City Car Share at http://www.citycarshare.org for more information on car sharing programs in the East Bay.

An alternative to purchasing a new vehicle is to have your old one tuned up and maintained to perform better, and increase its mileage. The amount of embodied energy (energy used to manufacture a product) is considerable in a new car or truck, so not purchasing one until you actually need a new one may be the best way to save money and energy.

Public transportation is a great option, offering a way to relax and read while commuting instead of sitting in traffic jams, and the cost and availability of parking at your destination.

By far, the best option is to bicycle or walk when you can while running errands or commuting. It’s great exercise (save on those health club fees), lets you get to know your neighborhood, and helps reduce your stress levels, blood pressure and increase metabolism. For every gallon of gasoline you save by walking or bicycling, twenty pounds of atmospheric pollution is saved.

For more information on energy and transportation, visit the City of Berkeley’s Energy Office Web site at http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ENERGY.

There was some good transportation news in the Planet recently. Berkeley is providing the Eco-Pass to employees; several hundred have signed up, and will presumably be riding the bus for free. Earlier, the UC students voted to re-approve their “class pass”, even when the rate went up.

But the car culture is still firmly in control. City streets are still snarled with traffic; most people still choose the car over the bus for all trips.

It looks likely that the General Plan will not have a moratorium on more parking downtown. Berkeley looks likely to make policy T-35 meaningless, by eliminating the moratorium on new parking, and probably by not doing much of anything to improve public transit.

Given the prevalent car-first attitude toward transportation, I can hardly blame downtown enterprises for pushing for more parking, or our Council for gutlessly going along. More parking is sure to bring more congestion, but the fact is that most people don’t care.

The Eco-Pass is a great idea, but people still need good transit to ride. Parking gets most of the political attention, while public transit gets mostly lip service. Of course traffic will keep getting worse if public policy pours on the cars, and compounds the problem by leaving the buses to fight the resulting congestion.

If we must endure all the cars, and provide them with parking, I think we should have bus-only lanes on major transit corridors like Shattuck, University and San Pablo. Elsewhere, these dedicated lanes have made a huge difference in transit service. BART keeps such a good schedule only because BART has a dedicated right-of-way.

Among the issues the City Council will consider during its last meeting of the year will be an authorization for the city manager to increase a contract with Eden Council for Hope and Opportunity, Inc. by $50,000 to run the city’s Homelessness Prevention Program. The HPP program has already exhausted its annual $110,000 per year allocation due to an increase of clients.

The HPP program is designed to assist people at risk of becoming homeless by providing cash and non-cash emergency assistance to those who can demonstrate they are in danger of losing their homes.

According to the report, the HPP has seen an increase of clients since the economic downturn began last March. During the months of July, August and September, HPP served 37 clients, more than the agency served in all of 2000 during which the organization served a total of 30 clients.

“The recession has hit a lot of people really hard and this is one of our best programs with a lot of human value,” said Housing Director Stephen Barton.

Barton added that the additional $50,000 is to fund the program through the holidays and that it will still need another $90,000 to get through the end of the fiscal year.

Civic cafe service

The council will likely authorize the city manager to negotiate a contract with a cafe business to open a full-service cafe in the lobby of the Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center. The contract would include a loan of up to $40,000 to help cover the estimated $80,000 it will take to make the plumbing and other interior upgrades necessary to operate a cafe. In the fall 2000, the city sent out Request for Proposals to approximately 15 cafe-styled businesses, mostly local, in the hopes of finding an operator who would be interested in opening a cafe to serve coffee and snacks. No proposals were received.

The business indicated that there were not enough customers at the location and the restricted hours, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., would not make such an operation financially feasible. But the owners did express an interest in opening a full service cafe that would offer full breakfast and lunch as opposed to just snacks. In addition, the operator would cater civic events.

Refrigerators for low-income households

The council is expected to authorize the city manager to enter into a $235,000 contract with Galvin Appliance to purchase about 400 new refrigerators for low-income households. The city will replace refrigerators that are at least 10 years old with new ones as part of the Housing Department's free weatherization services. The program will begin in January. For more information call 981-5400.

Winery boycott

The Peace and Justice Commission is asking the City Council to endorse a boycott of the Charles Krug Winery in support of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. According to a report by the PJC, Krug locked out 43 union members during negotiations in July. The PJC is also asking the council to direct all city employees to not purchase Charles Krug Winery products until the union calls off the boycott.

Scent of an environmental illness

Councilmember Dona Spring will ask the council to approve a recommendation from the Commission on Disability to rewrite the language that appears on city agendas that alerts people to environmental illnesses caused by manufactured perfumed scents.

According to Spring’s recommendation the current language is “misleading” and was adopted at the request of the perfume industry.

Currently the notice reads:

“Attendees at public meetings are reminded that other attendees may be sensitive to various odors whether natural or manufactured in products and materials. Please help respect their needs.”

Spring would like to see the notice be more explicit like the one on BART meeting agendas:

“Please refrain from wearing scented products (perfume, cologne, aftershave, etc.) to the meetings, as there may be people in attendance susceptible to environmental illnesses.”

Closed session meeting

The council will hold a closed session meeting at 5:30 p.m. at 2180 Milvia St. in the sixth floor conference room. During the meeting the council will confer with legal counsel on three existing cases in the Alameda County Superior Court.

They are: The Alameda/Contra Costa Transit District v. the California Department of Transportation, the People on the Bus v. California Department of Transportation and the Bayside Commons v. the City of Berkeley.

Housing Authority

The Berkeley Housing Authority, comprised of the City Councilmembers plus one tenant member, will convene at 6:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers. The authority is expected to approve Department of Housing and Urban Development loan of $1.4 million to the Berkeley Housing Authority. The loan will be used to complete all of the deferred maintenance on the 75 units of city-owned housing including $859,000 for the rehabilitation of 58 units at an average cost of $17,000 each.

The City Council meeting will be held tonight at 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way at 7 p.m. in the City Council Chambers. The meeting will also be broadcast live on the KPFA Radio, 89.3 and Cable B-TV, Channel 25

I moved from Southern California to Berkeley in 1971 to pursue graduate studies at Cal, and except for one year during my graduate work, I have lived in Berkeley ever since. I met my wife in Berkeley, and we have raised our family here. I began an engineering consulting business in Berkeley in 1978, and paid somewhat higher rents specifically to have our offices located downtown because of the excellent mass transit capabilities for me and my employees. My wife began an independent travel agent business two years ago and generally works out of the home. The main office of the agency she is affiliated with is located near our home, and she normally walks there to pick up printed tickets and brochures. My wife and I both love Berkeley and plan to live here the rest of our lives.

I am writing this letter because I am concerned that the current Draft General Plan contains a provision (Policy T-35) prohibiting spending any City funds to study the need for or construct more parking spaces over the next two years in the downtown area. As a businessperson, clients and colleagues often tell me of their reluctance to have meetings at our office because of parking difficulties. We often fax a map to people showing our office in relation to the main BART station and parking garages, but we still get numerous complaints. I am excited to see the new construction occurring downtown, along with the increased occupancy rates in existing buildings, particularly after the hardships and disarray that existed downtown in the 1970s and 1980s. However, as new shopping and entertainment opportunities have emerged, those who choose to drive downtown often encounter significant difficulties in finding a place to park, especially during the day. I believe a study of these current parking demands, as well as those that will exist as more downtown buildings are constructed, is critical to create a balanced approach to our downtown transportation demands.

I am also concerned about possible substantial increases to fees paid by those with monthly parking permits. My company has eight permits in downtown garages because we monitor construction operations at job sites throughout the Bay Area. We need to transport our testing equipment and other materials with us, and most job sites are not located near public transit. Therefore, we need access to our vehicles throughout the day. A large hike in fees would be very difficult for us to accommodate.

BENICIA — A high school teacher was found dead inside the trunk of a car in her garage Saturday night and one of her sons has been arrested, Benicia police said.

Lieutenant Michael Daley said two friends found the body of Kathryn Scarpaci, 50, a special education English teacher at Benicia High School and an employee at a local bookstore.

The friends were trying to locate Scarpaci at the request of her mother and a son who lives in Long Beach. Scarpaci’s relatives were unable to reach hear and she failed to show up at her job Saturday, Daley said.

When police arrived they found the victim’s son, Patrick Scarpaci, 18, at the house and arrested him.

Benicia High School Principal Bob Palous said the staff was advised of the death Sunday. Patrick Scarpaci is a senior at the school.

EBay co-founder, Jeff Skoll, initiated the SVUF in October with a grant of $2.5 million. It was an effort to persuade others to help nonprofits suffering a drop in donations due to the Sept. 11 attacks and recessed economy.

Skoll said at the time he wanted to raise $25 million, which was his estimate of what Silicon Valley nonprofits will lose this year.

Several local philanthropists joined the effort, raising the fund’s total to $2.82 million.

The fund reserved approximately $800,000 to meet additional needs for critical services in early 2002. The fund will continue to accept donations through January.

The nonprofits were chosen for delivery of critical services in the areas of shelter, food, and primary health care. They were asked to verify their budgets, to estimate the increased need for their services, and to estimate the gap between community needs and their available resources.

Becky O’Malley and Michael Katz said in the Planet that I attacked Dona Spring “viciously,” and engaged in “name calling...”

So I went back and re-read my editorial to check my mad dog habits and realized that O’Malley and Katz like biting people more than I do. On Monday O’Malley called up one local business and its manager called me up to say O’Malley had condemned the business person’s support for the amendment.

I said not to worry. As far as I knew you can express your opinion in America. The same crowd of a dozen or so, turn up at planning and council meetings to employ extreme language to push their love of a low density, cozy green Berkeley frozen in time. For most of Berkeley I actually agree with them, and would like to see it even lower density and quieter along creeks so that they could be restored and parks and gardens expanded – which can only be made possible if the Ecocity Amendment is part of the General Plan.

In reading my editorial again I noticed I did say that Spring’s support of lowering height limits was unfriendly to both people needing housing and to environmental health, and I absolutely believe it. I then challenged her to “be progressive,” and perhaps unadvisedly engaged in the “more progressive than thou game” pointing out that the Ecocity Amendment would make possible considerable new housing in pedestrian/transit centers and transit corridors, while down zoning would not.

Let’s get down to content. Do I advocate demolishing 70 percent of our housing stock and throwing out 70 percent of our people? Rather, I have consistently argued for much more housing and higher density centers, the higher density part being precisely what I usually get attacked for....

SAN JOSE — A judge refused to drop elephant abuse charges Monday against a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus star, setting up a closely watched trial this week.

Mark Oliver Gebel, 31, is charged with using a hooked stick known as an ankus to wound an elephant that was being paraded into a circus performance in San Jose on Aug. 25. The misdemeanor charge of elephant abuse carries up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Animal rights groups hope the case supports their long-held claims that circuses with wild animals are cruel and outdated.

Asking for the case to be dropped, defense attorney James McManis said that even if Gebel did what prosecutors allege, it was by no means the greatest blow on Earth. The wound in question was the size of a pinprick and left a blood stain as big as a nickel, McManis said.

“That’s as good as this case will get, no matter how many days we spend trying this case, no matter how many witnesses we call, no matter how many jurors we inconvenience in this holiday season,” McManis told the judge.

Prosecutor Carolyn Powell said, however, there’s no evidence the wound was merely equivalent to a pinprick.

Judge Linda Condron agreed to let the case proceed, and set jury selection for Tuesday morning. The trial could last about a week.

Gebel is the son of legendary Ringling Bros. trainer Gunther Gebel-Williams, who died in July at 66.

Gebel said he was looking forward to getting the case over with but declined further comment.

SACRAMENTO — Corrections officers could see salary boosts of 20-30 percent in the final years of a tentative five-year state contract, officials said Monday.

The proposal also cuts guards to a 40-hour work week, down from 42 hours in which the extra two hours are spent on training. It also boosts pension benefits to the level enjoyed by California Highway Patrol officers.

“It’s about time that officers in our profession are compensated adequately,” said Lance Corcoran, vice president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association.

The contract also calls for the state to cut the number of guard vacancies, which a sharply critical audit last month blamed for costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in overtime and sick leave. Up to 12 percent of prison jobs can remain vacant currently, but that would fall to 5 percent under the pending contract.

“We’ve got the same problems as law enforcement, but a (negative) stereotype that makes it even tougher to recruit and retain officers,” Corcoran said.

The proposal delays pay increases for the powerful, politically connected union’s nearly 29,000 members until after next year’s election, and, state officials hope, after the state’s current budget crunch.

The state agreed to pay 2 1/5 percent of officers’ pension contributions this year and an additional 5 percent at the July 1 start of the next fiscal year in lieu of standard pay increases.

“To them it’s the equivalent of a 2 1/2 percent pay raise, almost, and to us it gives us a little more breathing room on when we have to pay it,” said Marty Morgenstern, director of the state Department of Personnel Administration.

The state has similar deals with 14 other bargaining units that have reached tentative agreements.

Contracts with six other unions remain unresolved, though their contracts all expired last July.

The final three years of the officers’ contract, however, calls for increases to keep pace with salary boosts negotiated with the California Highway Patrol in September.

By law, CHP salaries are supposed to match those in major metropolitan police departments in California, but currently lag 8 percent behind. CHP’s new contract calls for the state to catch up with those local salaries over the next five years, and for guards to receive equal increases that would still leave them trailing CHP officers’ base pay.

Morgenstern estimated those increases could approximate 20-30 percent, depending on raises negotiated with local police.

Correctional officers’ pay currently averages just under $50,000 annually, Morgenstern said. A guard’s highest base pay brings $54,900 a year, but there are additional payments for longevity, education and physical fitness.

The contract, like all the tentative agreements, still must be ratified by the union and the state Legislature.

Diller has shown he can work media magic when it comes to turning around a troubled movie studio or starting a television network from scratch. He is credited with revitalizing ABC Television in the early 1970s, with turning around Paramount Pictures and with launching the Fox Television Network with such programs as “Cops” and “America’s Most Wanted.”

He is known as a demanding boss, a hands-on manager with a clear vision for the companies he leads. He has also mentored such successful executives as Michael Eisner, chairman and chief executive of The Walt Disney Co., and Jeffrey Katzenberg, a founding partner of DreamWorks SKG.

But in taking the reins at the newly formed Vivendi Universal Entertainment, which includes Universal Studios, Diller’s biggest challenge may be to stay out of the way of a team of executives behind two year’s worth of blockbusters, including “The Mummy,” “American Pie,” and “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”

“I don’t see Barry reading scripts,” said Jeff Logsdon, an analyst at the investment firm Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co. “Barry has seen enough in his years at Paramount and Fox to use his instincts and his intelligence to be a positive contributor.”

Last week, word that Diller might head the studio as part of Vivendi Universal’s purchase of the entertainment assets of Diller’s USA Networks reportedly sent shivers across the Universal backlot.

Universal Studios president and chief operating officer Ron Meyer and Universal Pictures chairman Stacey Snider have led the two-year comeback of the studio.

Calls to Universal Monday were not immediately returned.

“In the movie business there is no such thing as a company that is totally in distress or a company that is totally healthy,” Eisner said Monday. “You’re only as good as your last few pictures. So I think that company is very lucky to have him and I’m sure he will work well and deferentially with Ron and Stacey.”

Vivendi executives and Diller himself took pains Monday to reassure any nervous Universal executives.

In the flurry of press releases released as part of the announcement, Vivendi Universal issued a separate, two paragraph release confirming that Meyer is “the No. 2 person in the U.S. to Barry Diller” and that Snider and other executives will report to Meyer, not directly to Diller.

In a separate release, Diller reassured the two.

“The executives of Universal, and in particular Ron Meyer and Stacey Snider are first rate, doing first rate jobs and, while I’m sure I’ll have opinions, I intend to join their fine culture rather than imposing my own,” Diller said.

“The current management does not have to worry about Barry,” Logsdon said. “If anything, this should be a plus in their thinking because of his ability and clout to be sure the organization is going to support the business plan.”

Kevin Wendle, who worked for Diller for nearly five years at Fox, said Universal executives have nothing to fear.

“Barry does not suffer fools easily, but he knows how to extract the best from the best people,” Wendle, chief executive officer at IFilm, said. “He will not be threatening to the people who are performing. They will find him to be a mentor and a friend.”

SAN FRANCISCO — In early October, investors still seemed willing to give Calpine Corp. whatever it needed to realize its goal of becoming the nation’s largest power generator.

When Calpine turned to the public markets to issue $2 billion in debt, the response was so overwhelming that company management said it could have raised $5 billion. Calpine settled for $2.6 billion instead.

Two months later, investors are dumping Calpine stock and analysts are advising the company to back off its aggressive expansion if it hopes to regain the market’s confidence.

The rapid change in sentiment underscores the harsh reversal in fortune facing the entire power industry, which entered the year riding a wave of record profits that emboldened companies such as San Jose-based Calpine to lay out ambitious plans to become even bigger and more prosperous.

Now, industry giants are shrinking to beef up their debt-laden balance sheets.

In the last few days, both El Paso Corp. and Dynegy Inc. have announced major asset sales in an attempt to appease Wall Street. Other major players are expected to take similar steps as they try to boost sagging stocks and ward off downgrades by increasingly critical credit rating agencies.

“The only reason to buy a stock is if you think it’s going to be worth more tomorrow and there is no reason to really think that until this industry has a chance to regroup,” said industry analyst Thomas Hamlin of Wachovia Securities.

If power generators don’t do something to support their stocks, they will become increasingly vulnerable to takeover bids by stronger companies, including oil giants, looking to snap up potentially valuable assets at bargain prices, Hamlin predicted.

Calpine, bedeviled by a stock that has slid by 40 percent so far this month, is among the more attractive takeover candidates, the analyst said.

The tide began to turn against the power industry during the summer as energy prices descended. Then the bottom fell out last month with the collapse of the sector’s most prominent company, Enron Corp.

Enron’s devolution from powerhouse to pauper raised worries about almost every other major company in the industry.

“Every company in this industry needs to face reality, particularly the companies that have been expanding like Calpine,” said industry analyst Gordon Howald of Credit Lyonnais Securities. “The reality is we are in a global recession and energy demand is down. This is not the time to be adding more capacity. Calpine is holding on to the idea that their business model is still sound, but they are building on a delusion.”

Although the distaste for power stocks is widespread, none of the industry’s heavyweights have been as hard hit as Calpine. The company’s shares fell 30 cents to close at $12.90 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. Calpine’s market value has plunged by 78 percent, or $12.6 billion, since the company’s stock peaked at $58.04 in March.

The investor retreat is prompting power generators to scrap expansion plans to avoid taking on new debt and sell some assets to raise more cash to reassure investors fearing a repeat of Enron’s debacle.

Natural gas giant El Paso Corp. became the first major player to retrench last week when it unveiled a reorganization plan that includes the sale of $2.25 billion in assets. To conserve cash, the company is reducing its capital expenditures from $4.6 billion this year to $3.1 billion next year.

Houston-based Dynegy Inc. followed suit Monday by announcing plans to generate an additional $750 million by selling assets and reducing capital expenditures. To raise even more cash, Dynegy plans to sell $500 million in stock by September 2002.

No company is growing faster than Calpine, which had just under 6,000 megawatts of power capacity at the end of last year. The company now has about 12,000 megawatts of capacity and is currently building 30 more power plants around the country that will add an additional 17,800 megawatts.

By 2005, Calpine wants to have 70,000 megawatts in operation to make it the country’s biggest generator.

Two major credit rating agencies cast doubts about the expansion in separate actions last week. Moody’s Investor Service lowered Calpine’s rating to junk status while Fitch warned it is considering a similar move.

Both rating agencies are worried Calpine is taking on too much debt against the backdrop of its plunging stock price and declining prices for its power.

In a statement Monday, Calpine said it intends to regain its investment-grade credit rating. Toward that end, the company is “committed to taking the steps necessary to address today’s challenging financial and power markets,” said Bob Kelly, president of Calpine Finance Co. A company spokeswoman declined to elaborate beyond the prepared statement.

“What Calpine is trying to do may have made sense a few years ago, but not today,” said Fitch analyst Alan Spen.

SAN JOSE — Palm Inc. said Monday it has chosen Texas Instruments as the “preferred supplier” of chips for its next generation of wireless handheld devices.

The deal, however, is not exclusive, said Todd Bradley, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Palm’s Solutions Group, which handles Palm’s hardware products.

Bradley said Palm continues to work also with Intel Corp. and Motorola Corp. to develop microprocessors based on ARM architecture, which has become a chip standard to support demanding wireless applications, such as streaming video or handling voice data.

Shares of Santa Clara-based Palm fell 30 cents, or more than 8 percent, to $3.17 in Monday trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

It’s likely investors were reacting to the announcement that the next-generation products using Texas Instruments’ chips will not be introduced until the end of next year, said Thomas Sepenzis, an analyst at CIBC World Markets Corp.

When the stock market soared, the worldwide network of United Methodist missionaries thought big.

About $3 million was to go for a hospital in Kazakstan. Another $2 million was budgeted for land mine removal, and money was also earmarked for helping U.S. convicts rebuild their lives. Then the market tumbled, and with it went the bounty from the missionary division’s investments. The group has lost about $21 million in 2001, forcing administrators to lay off 45 employees.

“Next year will be one of the worst,” said Randolph Nugent, who manages the agency, called the Board of Global Ministries.

Other denominations also are feeling squeezed by the recession these days. Money for good works, once plentiful in the 1990s, has been drying up.

Adding to the churches’ woes are a steep increase in health insurance costs and a post-Sept. 11 drop in contributions, as the faithful have redirected their giving to victims of the terrorist attacks.

In Boston, that means the Roman Catholic archdiocese is scaling back some programs, though it won’t say which ones. Both Boston and the Erie, Pa., diocese have imposed hiring freezes.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) expects a deficit of about $2.5 million in its $136 million budget next year.

Beyond the recession, that denomination is losing money because of a fierce debate over whether to repeal a ban on gay clergy. Some conservative congregations are withholding payments to headquarters while the issue remains unresolved, though no numbers have been released.

Brad Hewitt, chief administrative officer of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, among the few faiths not facing losses, met last week with financial administrators from other large, Christian denominations.

“I would describe the mood as concerned, not alarmed — more of a wait- and-see attitude,” Hewitt said. “Although, I would say that a few of them, if their numbers were as bad as they sounded, would have to take some layoffs.”

The Presbyterians, to address their shortfall, plan to cut up to 15 jobs and reduce administrative expenses, said Joey Bailey, the denomination’s chief financial officer. A Presbyterian foundation that manages denominational assets has already eliminated 20 positions due to losses in the stock market.

In Erie, the troubles for Catholic Bishop Donald Troutman began more than a year ago, when factories started shutting down in his blue-collar city. About 3,000 jobs will be gone by next year.

Some of the unemployed have moved away, leaving collection plates a little lighter on Sundays. At the same time, health insurance costs for the diocese’s 109 employees rose by 14 percent, and the interest income Troutman had been using to cover some expenses evaporated when the stock market fell.

“What we’ve tried to do is not have any new programs and that’s hurt us because we see a need for new programs,” Troutman said. “There are no layoffs at this point. We’re hoping not to do that, especially around Christmas.”

Competition for money after the attacks has also hurt the bottom line of some denominations. The Greek Orthodox Church saw giving to its national office dip dramatically after Sept. 11, while donations to its social service ministries rose.

“It seems a lot of parishioners are donating to our relief funds rather than sending us their obligated payments they have to make on a monthly basis,” said John Barbagallo, the denomination’s finance director.

Not all denominations are suffering. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America saw income rise through Sept. 30, compared with the same period last year, but that was mainly due to bequests and large gifts.

For Nugent, who oversees more than 2,500 missionaries, the last several weeks have been a painful dismantling of projects for the desperately needy.

Nugent has tried to make the biggest cuts in administrative expenses, thereby preserving aid programs, but he still has had to shift money away from projects like land mine removal, hospital building and prison ministries.

“It’s very hard, particularly when you’re in places where you’re seeing people who have no clothing, or don’t have enough to eat,” he said.

ATLANTA — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began training state and local health officials Monday on how to recognize smallpox and quickly contain an outbreak spread by terrorists.

“It’s a sad day that we feel this meeting is necessary,” said Dr. Walter Orenstein, chief of the CDC’s National Immunization Program. “I hope and pray that this is a big waste of time.”

The CDC stressed it has no evidence that intentionally released smallpox is any more of a threat than it was before Sept. 11. But about 200 public health workers began three days of classes on how the highly contagious and deadly virus might be spread.

The virus, which could be much more dangerous than anthrax, causes a pock-like rash all over the body, and can be spread through the air.

The CDC wants to make sure state and local health officers — the first line of defense against a bioterrorism attack — don’t confuse smallpox in its early stages with less dangerous infections, like chickenpox or syphilis.

It also wants those officials to be familiar with the CDC’s emergency smallpox plan, released last month, which calls for immediate quarantine of a confirmed case and vaccination of people who came in contact with the infected person.

“We have a large, susceptible civilian population,” Orenstein said. “The threat of smallpox is probably not zero, although it is close to zero, and given its severity we need to be better prepared.”

Smallpox appears first as tiny bumps, sometimes too small to be noticed. The bumps gradually swell and become filled with pus, finally turning into contagious scabs that fall off the body.

Mass vaccination against smallpox ended in the United States in 1972, and the disease was declared eradicated 1980, with small stocks of virus kept at CDC’s labs in Atlanta and in Russia.

Bioterrorism experts fear some of the Russian stockpile may have fallen into the hands of rogue scientists in other nations. Monday’s speakers listed Russia, Iraq and North Korea as possible sites.

CDC deputy director Dr. David Fleming urged the state and local officers to plan with their counterparts in law enforcement because an outbreak might require them to use unusual power to quarantine the public.

Law enforcement might also have to handle a rush for smallpox vaccine if a case is confirmed, Fleming said. Health officials are wary of vaccinating people unnecessarily because hideous side effects and even death can caused by the vaccine in rare cases.

A year after a high-profile sexual assault against a 12-year-old student, Willard Middle School still does not have a police officer assigned to its campus.

Cops are in place at Berkeley High School and the other two middle schools in the district, Longfellow and Martin Luther King.

“We’re the only [middle school] that doesn’t have one, and we’re off Telegraph Avenue,” said Willard Principal Michele Patterson, who has placed an emphasis on safety this year. “I’d like to have a police officer on my campus.”

Officer Trina Erby served as a “resource officer” at Willard two years ago until an off-site injury put her out of work. Lt. Cynthia Harris, spokeswoman for the Berkeley Police Department, said that a staffing shortage, spurred by heavy retirement in the last 12 to 18 months, has prevented a timely replacement.

“We’re in a staffing crisis, but things are improving,” Harris said, pointing out that there are several recruits in training. “We hope to replace the officer up there soon.”

Mark Coplan, parent of a Willard sixth grader, and district manager for Burns International Security, a private security firm in Fremont, said the department should be doing more, even in

Tuesday, Dec. 18

Explore the metaphysics of the Christmas Story. 540-8844, patricia@newthoughtunity.org.

Feldenkrais Chair Class for

Seniors

1 p.m.

North Berkeley Senior Center

1901 Hearst Ave.

Gentle movement class for older adults. Free. ellmor1@home.com.

Feldenkrais Floor Class for

Seniors

2 p.m.

North Berkeley Senior Center

1901 Hearst Ave.

Gentle movement class for older adults. Free. ellmor1@home.com.

Berkeley Camera Club

7:30 p.m.

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda

Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 525-3565.

Wednesday, Dec. 19

Blanket Drive for Afghan

Refugees

daytime

Black Pine Circle School

2027 Seventh St.

A large truck will be parked outside the lower school for collection of clean, serviceable, blankets, quilts, and sleeping bags. These will be delivered to the American Friends Service Committee in San Francisco, then shipped to refugee camps in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. 526-4771, nanscape@yahoo.com.

Feldenkrais Classes for

Seniors

10:30 and 11:45 a.m.

Jewish Community Center

1414 Walnut

Gentle movement class for older adults. Free. ellmor1@home.com

Lecture Series on Women

Medieval Mystics

7:30 - 9 p.m.

All Souls Parish

2220 Cedar St.

Three Women Mystics: An Advent Lecture Series. Exploration of their spiritual quests designed to offer a new sense of spiritual possibilities in modern times. Free. Supervised childcare will be provided. 848-1755.

Thursday, Dec. 20

Blanket Drive for Afghan

Refugees

daytime

Black Pine Circle School

2027 Seventh St.

A large truck will be parked outside the lower school for collection of clean, serviceable, blankets, quilts, and sleeping bags. These will be delivered to the American Friends Service Committee in San Francisco and then shipped to refugee camps in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. 526-4771, nanscape@yahoo.com.

Islamic Cultural Celebration

7:30 p.m.

La Peña Cultural Center

3105 Shattuck Ave.

Mark the end of Ramadan with music, poetry, and stories from various parts

of the Islamic world. Proceeds will be donated to RAWA. $10. 849-2568, www.lapena.org.

I was surprised by the story on Willard Middle School and its “new day.” The day before the story appeared there was a terrible fight at Willard between two girls, it was not the first this year.

But more troubling is the lack of day-to-day discipline. Students walk into classes late, constantly interrupt teachers with conversations etc. and there are no consequences. My son’s teachers are all excellent, but they are hampered by the lack of a schoolwide plan for dealing with minor infractions. The small things lead to big problems.

The Winter Dance was cancelled, even though the first one went well. Students have been told they cannot wear pajamas for a Spirit Week pajama day, the school is fanatical about keeping children from wearing hats.

What our kids wear seems more important than what they do.

My observations and those of other parents not interviewed for your story is that things are different this year, but not much better.

“Every Inch a King” Jan. 11 through Feb. 9: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m.; Three sisters have to make a decision as their father approaches death in this comedy presented by the Central Works Theater Ensemble. $8 - $18. LeValls Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. 558-1381

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. 239-2252 www.acteva.com/go/havefun

“Images of Innocence and Beauty” Dec. 19 through Jan. 8: An exhibit featuring Kathleen Flannigan’s drawing and furniture - boxes, tables, and mirrors, all embellished with images of the beauty and innocence of the natural world. Addison Street Windows, 2018 Addison St.

“From With These Walls” Jan. 5: Educational studio opening celebration gallery show of student works in steel, bronze, aluminum, cast iron, glass, neon, ceramic, stone and paper; jewelry. The Crucible, 1036 Ashby St. (Entrance is one block south on Murray St.) 843-5511, fran@thecrucible.org.

“Ansel Adams in the University of California Collections” Dec. 12 through Mar. 10: A selection of photographs and memorabilia presenting a different perspective on Adam’s career as one of the leading figures in American photography. Wed, Fri. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thur. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. $4- $6. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot by 40 foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Mon. through Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu

The St. Mary’s boys’ basketball team are touted as one of the tops teams in Northern California, and on Saturday they finally lived up to their reputation, dominating Jesse Bethel, 69-46 in Berkeley.

Senior John Sharper, forced to play the point while DeShawn Freeman recovers from a stress fracture, finally had a breakout offensive performance, pouring in 22 points in the first half as the Panthers took a 48-24 halftime lead. Sharper finished with 24 points to lead all scorers.

“John’s getting used to his new role, and he’s been shooting better and better,” St. Mary’s head coach Jose Caraballo said. Sharper had four 3-pointers in the game, matched by teammate Tim Fanning, who scored 12 points.

Derek Deven came off the bench to lead Jesse Bethel with 21 points, but no other Jaguar scored more than 7. The starters combined to score just 18 points.

St. Mary’s came out playing hard on defense, pressuring the Jaguars into 12 turnovers in the first quarter. Sharper and Fanning were on fire in the opening period, combining to hit five 3-pointers to take a 24-12 lead. Fanning was a perfect 3-for-3 from the arc in the quarter, and forward Chase Moore and center Simon Knight controlled the boards, pulling down four rebounds each.

“We were able to force some turnovers early, and that gets us easy scores,” Caraballo said. “My kids just came out and played hard right away.”

The second quarter looked a lot different, with Jesse Bethel managing to commit just one turnover, but the result was exactly the same, with the Panthers again outscoring them 24-12 to take a 48-24 lead at halftime. Sharper scored 14 points in the quarter and Moore contributed six more. showing good versatility for a 6-foot-4 power forward. Moore stepped out and played the point for a few possessions, then went inside for an easy bucket.

Moore, who scored 14 points in the game, continued to show his skills after the break, as he and Fanning hit back-to-back 3-pointers to stake the Panthers to a 30-point cushion. A minute later, Moore pulled down a defensive rebound and went coast-to-coast for a driving layup, giving his team its biggest lead of the game at 60-28.

The Panthers started to slow it down a bit after that, but Caraballo didn’t call off his pressure defense until halfway through the fourth quarter even though the victory was well in hand. The coach said his team, which has been depleted by injury and sickness all season, needed to work on some things defensively.

“We were just practicing,” Caraballo said. “I haven’t had more than three or four 5-on-5 practices this year, so we needed to stay in our defense and do wome work.”

The Panthers were impressive on offense, taking care of the ball with just 8 turnovers through the first three quarters before getting careless in the final period. With Freeman out until next month, the players are still getting used to playing with Sharper at the point. After winning the Division IV state championship last year, the Panthers will move up to Division I for the playoffs this season, and that means they’ll need to be hitting on all cylinders in February and March. With Freeman back as the quickest point guard around, Sharper and Fanning on the wings and Moore and a much-improved Knight down low, they could surprise some of the bigger schools. But Caraballo knows they’re not ready just yet.

“We’re nowhere near where we need to be if we’re going to make a deep run,” he said. “But we’re working hard, and hopefully we’ll get healthy real soon.”

Neighbors give mixed reviews Two empty lots in different parts of the city, both former Chevron stations, have presented different challenges for developer Avi Nevo and his company, Aldar Investments.

For the first, a long-defunct space in the heart of the Solano Avenue shopping district, Aldar proposed a two-story office and retail building that has earned everyone’s affection, including that of the hard-to-please Thousand Oaks Neighborhood Association.

For the second, which lies between the Gourmet Ghetto and the KFC outlet on North Shattuck Avenue, the developer has pushed a five-story housing project that has been partially derailed by hostile neighbors and a unanimous thumbs-down from the city’s Design Review Committee.

The proposed building at 1820 Solano Ave., which was approved by the Zoning Adjustments Board Thursday night, would have five retail outlets at ground level facing Solano and office space above.

The ZAB voted unanimously in favor of the project, and many board members praised the building’s look. There was some concern, though, over its impact on parking in the neighborhood. Nevo and David Trachtenberg, the building’s architect, had asked the ZAB to grant their application even though they would be providing six fewer parking spaces than the building code required.

The developers compensated for the shortfall by installing a bicycle locker and shower for office employees and promising to require businesses that move into the building to provide transit passes for their workers.

That, plus some allowances the board made for the unusual topography of the lot, sealed the deal for a

The Berkeley Daily Planet received this letter addressed to Mayor Shirley Dean and the City Council:

This letter is to support Policy T-35 of the Draft General Plan, in the hope of slanting future development of downtown Berkeley toward grass, trees and people, and less toward yet more shiny, idle sheet metal sitting in glaring possession of public sites.

More parking downtown will simply render the area more vehicle-friendly. The past year has seen some tragic pedestrian deaths by motor vehicle in Berkeley. One of the worst only a few blocks from our home, that of a lovely young woman crossing Shattuck on a green light, some months ago. Statistically, more vehicles must result in more such incidents.

Those of us who bike or walk are perhaps asking too much of our elected representatives: ours is, after all, a car culture. No community in this country will in the foreseeable future follow the example of some small European cities to establish a Ringstrasse, within which only public transportation and city-owned ride&leave bikes are permitted. This would give us the most humane and safe environment, but it won’t happen any time soon.

But we can, at this point, adopt a moratorium on new parking. Traffic history in this, the most vehicularized country in the world, clearly shows that new provisions for automobiles are quickly maxed out, resulting in an exponential demand for ever more parking, still more roads. And our communities stew and steep in the exhaust fumes of ever greater numbers of stalled, idling automobiles.

We cannot cure the automotive malaise anytime soon, but we can refrain from worsening it, limiting the magnitude of the mess that must be dealt with eventually. Please do not yield to the mercantile and automotive voices; this is a lot to ask, for they are very vocal, well moneyed, and represent the upper strata of the social hierarchy. To ask a political leader to stand firm in the face of all this may well be unreasonable. But Berkeley isn’t just any community.

We initiated here the national movement that stopped the Vietnam venture; fruit pickers protection and representation began here, back in the ’60s. If a stand against the motor minds of the country is to start anywhere, this is the place, you are the people.

When Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announced the closure of its Tritium facility last September, many city officials and residents breathed a sigh of relief. But now a neighborhood organization is raising concerns about how the laboratory will dispose of left over radioactive and chemically toxic materials.

Last September LBNL announced the December closure of the National Tritium Labeling Facility and an estimated $1 million decommissioning and decontamination process.

The facility, which was managed by LBNL, provided medical researchers with the radioactive isotope tritium. The lab attached the tritium to pharmaceuticals and other medical compounds, in a process known as labeling, so the compounds can be accurately traced as they course through the living organisms.

The facility, which opened in 1982, has been controversial since 1996 when a neighborhood group, the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste, began asking

At the Dec. 13 meeting of the Berkeley Democratic Club, former mayor of Berkeley Loni Hancock, who is running for State Assembly, stated that the repeal of Costa-Hawkins should not be part of the Housing Element of the General Plan.

In fact, one of her supporters is none other than Nick Petris, who cast the deciding vote for passage of the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act; at the time, Mr. Petris was considered one of the most liberal state senators representing the East Bay. Ms. Hancock is also supported by City Council members Breland, Maio, and Spring.

Costa Hawkins was passed as a response to the catastrophic results of radical rent control in cities such as Berkeley, Santa Monica, East Palo Alto, Cotati and West Hollywood; it allows owners to set a market rate rent on vacant apartments (vacancy decontrol).

To say that vacancy decontrol should be repealed basically says that we should go back to the housing policies of the eighties. The Census figures best explain the implication of this approach.

In 1980, when the rent ordinance was implemented, 35 percent of Berkeley housing units were owner occupied, by 1990 this number had increased to 44 percent, which translates into a net loss of 3,967 rental units converted to owner occupancy, or a loss of 8,330 tenants for the decade (using the Census figure of 2.1 persons per household). The data were provided by a September 1993 city of Berkeley document.

Now let us analyze who were some of these tenants who “disappeared” during the eighties due to the effects of rent control. The number of female head of household with children under 18 plummeted from 3,072 to 2,345, a 23.7 percent reduction; compare this to the statewide increase of 15.9, and the countywide increase of 2.8 in this category.

The number of Social Security recipients dropped 6.9 percent in Berkeley during the eighties, while all other comparable size cities experienced increases in this category.

The percentage of lower income renter households also decreased by 10.8 percent in Berkeley, while increasing in nearly all other Bay Area cities (lower income is defined as the category of low and very low income).

The number of households with public assistance income dropped by 12.7 percent in Berkeley while increasing statewide by 17.7 percent.

Lastly, Berkeley had the distinction of experience a decrease in the population of residents between the ages of 5 and thirty four.Berkeley was also the only city in which the number of students diminished according to the Census. The UC Housing and Transportation biannual survey confirm this trend showing a steady decrease in the number of students living in Berkeley private housing:, the percentage of students residing in the city for 1992, 1994, and 1997 were 48.5 percent, 52.2 percent and 54.0 percent respectively. (Costa-Hawkins was implemented in 1996).

(During the decades of the sixties and seventies,before the passage of rent control, the percentage of students living in Berkeley private housing remained fairly constant at 62-64 percent).

Clearly the trend was reversed with vacancy decontrol (Costa-Hawkins). The Rent Board’s own 1998 survey released in February 1998 showed that in the Campus /Downtown sub-area, the percentage of student households increased from 28 to 44 percent comparing the years 1988 and 1998.

Thus calling for the repeal of Costa Hawkins in the Housing element of the General Plan basically says that we should repeat the mistakes of the eighties in which the city of Berkeley saw a decrease in female headed households, the poor, the elderly and students.

To quote professor Michael Tietz of the Public policy Institute of California: “Finding ways to build alliances that could support moderate regulation while relaxing constraints on development might make more sense than fighting the same wars over and over.”

LOS ANGELES – Two Jewish Defense League members accused of terrorist activity thanked their supporters Sunday and asserted they would be found innocent of the charges against them.

JDL chairman Irv Rubin and JDL member Earl Krugel issued a statement Sunday calling their arrest “politically motivated.” The statement was played on a JDL office telephone message, recorded by an unidentified male voice.

The pair supported their statements by referencing a New York Times Internet article Sunday that said, in part, “federal officials in Los Angeles said the case (against Rubin and Krugel) should put to rest complaints that the authorities have been singling out Arabs and Muslims in their terrorism investigations since the attacks of Sept. 11.”

The recorded statement also called the case “a political prosecution.”

Rubin and Krugel were charged Dec. 12 in federal court for allegedly plotting to bomb a Culver City mosque and the office of Lebanese-American Rep. Darrell Issa, R-San Clemente.

Authorities say they were tipped to the alleged plan in October by an unidentified informant who was a longtime JDL member.

Rubin and Krugel are expected to plead innocent to the charges at a Dec. 31 arraignment and could end up facing more than 30 years in prison if convicted.

On Sunday, Rubin and Krugel also thanked supporters who have donated money to their defense, adding: ”(To) ... people that believe they (Rubin and Krugel) were set up. The people that believe this is a political prosecution.”

Rubin and Krugel also declared that anti-Semitic sentiment was widespread, citing a piece in the Opinion Section of Sunday’s Los Angeles Times written by Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.

Cooper wrote, in part, “Jews, far from having their religion celebrated, have been confronted with new and virulent strains of anti-Semitism.”

BERKELEY – The city’s plan to help pedestrians cross intersections by providing small, bright-orange flags took a hit Friday when a Jeep struck a 53-year-old woman carrying one of the banners.

The woman was not seriously injured.

Berkeley implemented the plan this week in hopes that it would force drivers to take note of pedestrians at some of the city’s most dangerous intersections.

Pedestrians take one of the flags, cross the street and leave it in the holder on the other side.

That’s what Susan Wood did before the Jeep struck her. The Jeep’s driver, Maya Bacha of Pleasant Hill, was cited for failing to yield the right of way to a pedestrian.

The accident did not dampen the enthusiasm of Berkeley officials, who say the program will help protect pedestrians in the long term.

City imposes new stricter wood-burning regulations

BERKELEY – Planning to build a new house in Berkeley? You’ll have to nix plans to curl up in front of a fireplace.

The city has imposed what may be the strictest wood-burning regulations in the Bay area. It hopes to reduce health risks from polluted air.

New fireplaces and commercial open-fire appliances, such as wood-fired pizza ovens or mesquite grills, are banned under the ordinance. Substantial remodels of existing fireplaces and appliances also are banned.

Existing structures are exempt, as are appliances that meet strict federal environmental standards. But the ordinance leaves many on both sides of the debate unhappy.

Critics point out that since new houses are rare in Berkeley, the ban largely is symbolic. Representatives of the wood-burning appliance industry say the ban is based on flawed assumptions about wood smoke dangers.

Unlike many other jurisdictions, Berekley’s regulations have been inserted into the building code. That makes it easier for the city to enforce, said Nabil Al-Hadithy, manager of the city’s Toxics Management Division.

SACRAMENTO – A Sacramento publisher’s commencement speech was drowned out by hecklers after she began speaking about threats to civil liberties posed by the federal government’s investigation of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Janis Besler Heaphy, president and publisher of The Sacramento Bee, was delivering the mid-year graduation address at California State University in Sacramento on Saturday. She was interrupted for five minutes by the audience, which began clapping and stomping.

The heckling began after Heaphy raised questions about racial profiling, limits on civil rights and the establishment of military tribunals.

University President Don Gerth tried to quiet the audience, but Heaphy stopped speaking after more loud heckling erupted about three-quarters of the way through her eight-minute speech.

Heaphy told The Sacramento Bee afterward that the hecklers were merely blaming the messenger.

“This was a message about civil liberties and our acceptance of differing points of view in American society,” she said. “It’s a message that needs to continue to be heard.”

Gerth said he was upset by the interruption, blaming it on students’ family members and friends in the audience. He said some students approached Heaphy after the ceremony to apologize.

“Our students have a right to hear our speaker,” Gerth said. “I have never seen behavior like this. It is a day I will never forget. I am not proud of it.”

Heaphy said the outbursts did not change her opinion and she plans to continue to voice her concerns about potential civil liberties violations.

“When the university invited me to speak, I thought about what to say. I decided that the message should be one that emphasizes the need to continue to embrace the traditions of liberty that are at the core of American democracy,” she said. “Nothing that happened (Saturday) changes my mind for the need to continue to articulate those values.”

Gerth said it was the university’s largest graduation crowd ever. The Arco Arena was packed Saturday and can hold more than 17,000 people.

Heaphy’s speech will be posted in its entirety Monday on the university’s Web site, Gerth said.

OAKLAND – Thousands of low-income students in Alameda and Contra Costa counties would get help in paying for bus fare under a plan debated Friday by a regional transit agency.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission set aside $1.7 million for a two-year pilot program that would give poor students discount bus passes.

The size of the discount has yet to be determined. Advocates say thousands of East Bay children have to scrape together their transportation costs each month.

Nearly 100 sign-carrying students from area schools attended the commission’s meeting and demanded free bus passes.

Instead, commission members approved a more limited plan. They will try to work out the details and vote for final approval this Wednesday.

Geologists find fault within S.F. borders

SAN FRANCISCO – Despite its history of destructive earthquakes, geologists have only just now found what appears to be a fault within San Francisco’s borders.

Scientists say the fault is a relatively benign extension of the Serra Thrust Fault. Until now, that fault had been mapped only as far as Daly City, just to San Francisco’s south.

The fault poses nowhere near the same threat as the San Andreas Fault, which cuts straight through towns to San Francisco’s south, but heads out to sea just south of the city’s border.

New details of the little-known thrust fault were presented Friday by San Francisco State University researchers.

The researchers say the buried fault has not rumbled to life anytime recently and was apparently quiet during both the 1906 San Francisco and 1989 Loma Prieta quakes.

United Airlines adds security at SFO terminal

SAN FRANCISCO – United Airlines has added another security checkpoint at San Francisco International Airport.

United hopes to shorten lines for all passengers, but those who travel light or fly first class likely will be happiest.

That’s because United also created two new security lines Friday. One is for passengers who carry no luggage aboard other than a purse or briefcases, the other, for first-class passengers.

Large carriers at Mineta San Jose International Airport and Oakland International Airport said they did not plan to offer similar treatment to first-class or light-traveling passengers.

Most passengers say they are pleased at any effort to speed the wait for security checks at airports. Others say it’s unfair to speed some ticket-holders through security over others.

Killer oil slick came from one source, state says

SAN FRANCISCO – State officials say an oil slick that killed more than 200 seabirds last month came from a single source.

Dana Michaels, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Fish and Game, said scientists performing chemical tests on seven samples of the oil verified a match Friday. The oil almost certainly came from a ship, rather than from a natural seep, they have concluded.

Coast Guard investigators now will attempt to match the unique chemical “fingerprint” of the oil to tankers that were in the area when the spill is believed to have occurred.

On Nov. 24, seabirds coated with oil began washing up at Point Reyes National Seashore and the Farallon Islands off San Francisco. Since then, oiled birds have been found along 125 miles of California coastline, as far south as Monterey.

Small-business owners optimistic about future

MENLO PARK – A survey of small-business owners found that most are optimistic about the future of their business and the economy and continue to believe the Internet is important to their success.

The national survey of 976 small business owners, conducted by independent consultants for Homestead Technologies, Inc., found that 86 percent of those surveyed felt optimistic about the future of their own business, and only 9 percent expected to do worse in 2002 than they did this year.

In addition, 67 percent said they felt optimistic about the U.S. economy, although 23 percent said they didn’t expect the overall economy to improve much in the next six months.

Despite the recent collapse in technology stocks and the end of the “dot-com” boom, the survey also found that most were still feeling positive about the Internet as a business tool.

Palestinian woman claims prejudice led to firing

SANTA CLARA – A Palestinian woman has sued Macy’s for firing her from her sales job in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Alia Atawneh, 28, moved to Santa Clara four years ago with her husband, a Jordanian who’s been a U.S. citizen for more than 20 years.

Atawneh’s parents also are naturalized U.S. citizens who moved to Bloomington, Ill., after living in Kuwait and Jordan.

Atawneh alleges, in a suit filed Dec. 5 in Santa Clara County Superior Court, that she lost her job because she’s Palestinian.

Atawneh, who worked in the men’s department at Westfield Shoppingtown Valley Fair, says Macy’s managers grilled her about her views after she was berated by a customer, and then wrongfully accused her of telling colleagues that “America deserved” the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Macy’s lawyers referred questions to the chain’s public relations office, which refused to comment on pending litigation.

PASADENA – Five New York City firefighters rode triumphantly up to Pasadena’s Old Firehouse on Sunday, the last stop of a cross-country bicycle tour that began Nov. 11 at the site of the World Trade Center.

A crowd of supporters, including firefighters from Pasadena and nearby towns, met the men under a bright blue sky with cheers and shouts of “F-D-N-Y! F-D-N-Y!” Children clamored for autographs.

The firefighters had just completed a 2,757-mile trek not to raise funds, but to express thanks to the nation for the support they say has overwhelmed them since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“It was beautiful, overwhelming, great support from the country,” said one of the firefighters, Matt Hornung, 30, who was wearing bicycle shorts and a red plastic firefighter’s hat. “We intended on thanking people, and people came out and thanked us.”

Hornung and the other firefighters come from the East Village firehouse of Engine Co. Nine/Ladder Co. 33, a station less than a mile from the World Trade Center that lost 10 men on Sept 11. Pictures of the fallen were displayed on a poster as the cycling firefighters listened to speeches from local officials and a rendition of “America the Beautiful.”

“To be able to meet them face to face and be part of it for a few hours, it’s a dream come true,” said Pasadena firefighter paramedic Jim Todd, 40, as he watched from the crowd. “They’re the true heroes.”

The firefighters pedaled down to Georgia from New York, then cut across the South to the West Coast, greeting well-wishers and sleeping in firehouses along the way.

They rode about 100 miles a day, trailed by a support van driven by a sixth firefighter.

“It’s been a very long trip, it’s been a great trip, and I wish it would not end,” said Dan “Pappy” Rowan, senior member of the firehouse and the bike tour’s mastermind. The other riders were Hornung, Sal Princiotta, Drew Robb and Gerard Dolan. Ralph Perricelli followed in the van.

After speeches in front of the Old Firehouse, the firefighters boarded an authentic, privately owned New York Fire Department firetruck which ferried them across the street to a park for more speeches and applause.

Elated onlookers snapped photos and asked the firefighters to sign their hats.

“We’re just so proud of them and we wanted to show them how proud we are,” said Pasadena resident Adrienne Wilson, who attended the big event with her daughter Elizabeth.

“We really admire these fellows, these guys and gals ... It was too good to miss,” said Terry Hartley, a 50-year-old high school librarian from Pasadena.

The firefighters carried mementos of their fallen co-workers, a golf tee from one, a shoelace from another.

“We have pictures of them. Of course we think about them all the time, every day,” Dolan said.

Bethel, Conn., bicycle manufacturer Cannondale supplied lightweight bikes, with red, white and blue paint. The men were flying back to New York on Monday using tickets donated by United Airlines.

Otherwise, the riders paid their own way, some using vacation days they hadn’t even earned yet.

SANTA CLARITA – It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it. That’s what Santa Clarita plans with a pilot diaper recycling program.

The 6-to 12-month project will involve 750 families in spring 2002. If successful, curbside diaper recycling will be made available to every home.

Santa Clarita would be the first city nationwide to have such a program. The method already has been adopted in Ontario and the Netherlands.

Proponents say it would help Santa Clarita avoid steep fines by meeting the state mandate to reduce its load of landfill trash by 50 percent.

Advocates also say the commuter city 20 miles northwest of Los Angeles, with an average age of 34, is the ideal place to test a new technology that separates a diaper’s stinky deposits from reusable plastics and wood pulp.

“This place is a baby factory, man,” said Councilman Cameron Smyth.

The plan will be subsidized by Canadian firm Knowaste, which developed the technology, $250,000 from city taxes and a matching state grant.

Opponents say the program could prove too costly to be feasible. U.S. experts estimate it costs an average $32 per ton to dump trash in landfills. The daiper recycling facility would probably have to charge more.

Councilman Bob Kellar, the only one in the five-member council to oppose the idea, noted three Canadian cities abandoned similar trials during the 1990s after costs skyrocketed, with dumping fees reaching $150 a ton.

SAN FRANCISCO – If your e-mail box is already besieged by unwanted salutations and solicitations, brace yourself – the onslaught is about to get worse.

Driven in part by anthrax scares, analysts say, e-mail volume will likely grow 45 percent next year, up from recent annual growth rates of 40 percent.

A lot of it is junk.

How to get out from under the electronic onslaught?

Most e-mail programs – Microsoft’s Outlook and Netscape’s Messenger among them – include custom filtering features that most people don’t use.

While that’s a start, smarter and heavier duty e-mail management tools are also available from a handful of technology start-ups.

Some are designed to ward off one of the Internet’s biggest nuisances – the slew of marketing pitches commonly known as “spam.” Others promise to help people focus on the e-mail they consider truly important.

“E-mail is the most popular application on the Internet, but it’s the No. 1 frustration as well,” said Tonny Yu, chief executive of Mailshell, which provides a service akin to Caller ID for e-mail.

Much of next year’s e-mail volume is expected to be generated by direct-marketing companies. And that means “even more time is going to be sucked away” from people’s lives dealing with spam, says Joyce Graff, an e-mail analyst for the Gartner Group technology research firm.

By some estimates, workers with e-mail accounts spend an estimated one hour per shift dealing with their incoming messages.

And that’s the market for Yu’s Santa Clara-based Mailshell, which lets users create different e-mail addresses tied to a single e-mail account.

For example, John Doe might use “amazon(at) jdoe.mailshell.com” when shopping at Amazon.com and “yahoo(at)jdoe.mailshell.com” when registering at Yahoo.com. E-mail sent to those addresses would then go to Mailshell, which would automatically forward them to Doe’s real e-mail box.

If Doe is sick of mail coming from a particular source, he could delete the alias from the Mailshell site without losing e-mail from other sources.

Mailshell offers a basic form of its service for free. A premium version, with more disk space and forwarding options, costs $29.95 per year.

If you don’t want to go to the trouble of creating a new alias every time you sign up for an online service, several software products promise to block junk mail from reaching your main address. The top-sellers in this niche include SpamKiller and Spam Buster.

Most of the anti-spam software programs aren’t 100 percent effective, though, because spam senders are constantly figuring out ways around the roadblocks.

“The software is good at blocking yesterday’s spam, but not tomorrow’s,” said Graff.

Powerful spam filters also run the risk of blocking legitimate e-mail.

The problem stems partially from the vague definitions of spam. Some people regard all unsolicited e-mail as spam, whether it be an offer from a pornographic Web site or a chain letter passed along by a friend. Others are OK with certain unsolicited messages, such as those from charities and political organizations.

By almost any definition, though, spam is proliferating.

The spam attacks detected by Brightmail, an anti-spam service, have soared from 2,000 a day in mid-2000 to 28,000 during one day last month, said Gary Hermanson, Brightmail’s chief executive. Each attack could include tens of thousands of individual e-mail targets.

San Francisco-based Brightmail makes software that is installed on e-mail gateways, including those of many major Internet service providers, to block spam and viruses.

The service draws upon existing spam databases as well as automatic sensors that remain on the lookout for new sources of spam. Graff regards Brightmail and Burlington, Mass.-based Elron Software as the most effective spam filters.

Other standalone software products are mostly prioritizers.

Incline SoftWorks, a start-up in Lake Tahoe, Nev., builds eMailBoss around Outlook’s Rules. The software, which only works on Outlook, sorts incoming mail into programmable categories, including “VIP,” “Friends and Family” and “Junk Mail.”

The software also includes spam-blocking features and will announce aloud when e-mail arrives from specified senders. After a free 30-day trial period, the software costs $39.95.

Student body at Oak Grove have reduced landfill output by almost 90 percent using worms and pigs

GRATON – Kids do it. Pigs do it. Even worms who only like to squirm do it. What they do at Oak Grove elementary is recycle. And they do it well; students here have reduced their landfill output by nearly 90 percent.

“We try to be a green school all the way around,” says Fred Hall, custodian, gardener and fervent recycler.

Tucked into the tree-shaded town of Graton, about 65 miles north of San Francisco, Oak Grove doesn’t look much different than any other small country school.

But there are subtle differences.

In a corner of the school yard, rose-pink worms writhe in a pile of rich, black compost made of leftover paper towels, napkins, plant material and food scraps.

Long, wooden boxes standing outside classrooms are devoted to vermiculture: take a handful of invertebrates and some wastepaper, add a weekly dose of food scraps and — voila! — the worms turn scraps to soil.

The school lawns were ripped out long ago, replaced by drought-tolerant landscaping and vegetable gardens that supply some of the ingredients for school lunch salad bars.

Inside every classroom, a formidable array of containers elevates the trash can from humble receptacle to planet-saving spectacle. “There’s no such thing as just a trash can,” says Hall.

Most rooms have at least four bins, each labeled and color coded, one for mixed paper, one for compost material, one for mixed recyclables and one for nonrecyclable trash.

Oak Grove went green about 10 years ago in an effort to save a different type of green — money spent on trash collection fees.

Hall started by hauling school debris to the dump himself. Then, he pulled out the cardboard for recycling. Cardboard led to paper, bottles, aluminum and the current sophisticated system that recycles just about everything and even siphons off lunchroom leftovers to local pigs.

In the first year, the school saved about $1,400. Hall hasn’t run the numbers lately but he figures they’re saving even more now: The school used to produce about 8 cubic yards of trash per week; now they’re down to 1. That’s a reduction of 88 percent, considerably more than the 50 percent reduction target set for cities and counties by state law.

Last year, officials estimate, California cities and counties diverted 42 percent of their garbage from going to landfills.

Oak Grove recyclers are in a class of their own.

In the front office, a glass-fronted case holds a framed certificate and a gilded trophy, both awards for recycling efforts. One came with $10,000, which is being used to install solar panels on the school roof.

On a recent day, Naomi Bosch, a third-grader with a winning smile, was on duty at the sorting bins, delving into trash cans supplied by various classrooms.

A frown crossed her forehead as she pulled a piece of stapled paper out of a “nonrecyclable trash” can.

“These people weren’t recycling right at all,” she said, her thin treble rising in indignation.

Recycling is “great. Because it helps Mother Nature and it helps our landfills last longer,” she declared.

“Did your mom tell you all this stuff?” asked Hall.

“No,” the 8-year-old said firmly. “I KNOW it.”

At lunchtime, the recycling action turned frenzied as Hall circulated the room with a plastic bucket, taking uneaten, unopened packages for donation to a food pantry of sorts.

Amid the buzz of chattering children and the squeak of sneakers on wood — Oak Grove’s cafeteria triples as the school’s basketball court and auditorium — an array of seven trash cans staffed by student monitors stood ready to accept paper, plastic, juice boxes, cans, etc.

At the end of the line a bin decorated with a picture of a pink, napkined pig with knife and fork at the ready marked the slop bucket that goes to a neighborhood sty.

Scanning the scraps was 10-year-old Lindsey Fullerton, who slapped her gloved hands together briskly as she surveyed the gruesome mix of leftover tostadas and juice.

“It feels good,” she said gleefully before plunging her arms into the mess to retrieve stray juice boxes, which were promptly squeezed flat and tossed into the correct container.

Swine are divine recycling partners, according to Hall, because they’re happy with things like half-eaten sandwiches that don’t go down well with worms.

The community likes the idea, too. Multiple offers of replacement pigs poured in after the school recently lost its longtime porcine partners when a local farmer retired. A new pigsty is now hogging the lunchroom leftover market.

Hall estimates the school recycles about 2 cubic yards of paper a week — a stack about 3 feet wide, 3 feet high and 6 feet long. They save about the same amount of cardboard and about half a cubic yard of milk cartons and boxes.

The result, he figures, is about 32 trees a week.

“YOU ARE TERRIFIC,” he wrote in a recent letter to teachers and students.

Hall has noticed that visitors are often struck by the bright outlook of Oak Grove students.

“We’ve talked a lot about how special everything is and how special the kids are. I think that the whole focus on taking care of things and taking care of the Earth and seeing that they have some importance in that process has an effect,” he said. “These kids seem to be happy.”

SAN FRANCISCO – Burning Man organizers do not understand why the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has doubled fees over the past three years for those wishing to attend the popular festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.

San Francisco-based Black Rock City LLC is a nonprofit with a $ 5 million budget to pull off the eight-day event every year. It covers a 5-mile section of the desert, 120 miles north of Reno near Gerlach. It ends with the burning of a 40-foot wooden figure. More than 25,000 people attended the event in September.

It costs $135 to $250 a ticket to get in, but organizers do not rake in all of the money collected at the gate. They have to pay $4 per person to the Bureau of Land Management.

A fee, they say, is just too much.

“Before 1999, we paid $2 – then it doubled,” said Larry Harvey, one of the counterculture event’s founders. “That’s a gross inequality.”

This year, Black Rock City paid the BLM $502,000. Nearly all of that money goes to the district that manages Black Rock Desert.

But federal officials say they’re not out to gouge Burning Man organizers. The bureau is instead required by law to charge so much for various criteria.

“We can’t negotiate it,” said Terry Reed, field manager for the BLM’s Winnemucca Field Office. “We can use either cost recovery or a fee schedule – but we have to use whichever is higher.”

Reed also didn’t dispute the fact that the 16-year-old event, that attracts thousands of artists, techies and soul searchers, has boosted the budget.

“It has definitely helped us financially,” Reed said. “Our receipts were around $500,000 (for the last event). After expenses – mainly processing and law enforcement – we had net revenues of about $250,000.”

Harvey calls the fee structure an excuse to take more money. He argues the BLM, which oversees 9 million acres and 80 employees, is out to make a profit from the nonprofit event.

“Basically, they now see us as a profit center,” Harvey said. “That being the case, they should be trying to encourage rather than throttle us.”

Harvey said he has no intention of moving the event, which is dependent on the desert’s playa. He also does not plan on increasing admission fees, for fear it would limit the event only to wealthy people.

The Berkeley Democratic Club, home to the moderate wing of the city’s Democratic Party, overwhelmingly endorsed Charles Ramsey for the 14th State Assembly District seat and Jacki Fox Ruby for the Alameda County Board of Education on Thursday. Both candidates are up for election in March.

“I’m just happy and delighted and grateful for the support of the club,” said Ramsey. “I look forward to serving its constituency.”

Almost 80 percent of more than 100 club members present, voted to endorse Ramsey, a member of the West Contra Costa Unified School Board since 1993.

In the county’s school board race, 60 percent of the members backed Fox Ruby, a long-time Berkeley teacher. Thirty-six percent voted to endorse incumbent Jerome Wiggins.

Club members said they were impressed with Ramsey, and troubled with Hancock’s record as mayor.

“We all like his warmth and his knowledge,” said City Council member Betty Olds, discussing Ramsey’s appeal. “Loni’s history goes against her for this club.”

Olds said Hancock’s record on certain issues, such as her support for rent control, alienated members of the club.

The session, which took place at Northbrae Community Church on The Alameda, began with opening statements by the Assembly candidates, one of whom will replace Assemblymember Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley, who must leave office next year because of term limits.

Brown urged club members to buck Berkeley’s tradition of “machine” politics, and vote for an outsider.

He also trumpeted his work as a teacher in the Richmond Unified School District, arguing it would be helpful in tackling statewide education issues.

Hancock touted her experience in economic development and environmental issues as the city’s mayor during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and called on the moderate club to reach across the divide and support her progressive candidacy.

“Often, this club and I have not agreed on local issues,” Hancock said.

“I am quite sure we would agree on issues at the state level.”

Ramsey said he has experience dealing with budget difficulties, like those confronting the state, noting that the West Contra Costa Unified School District went bankrupt only two years before he took a seat on the school board.

“We all know about earthquakes,” Ramsey said. “Well, I fought the aftershocks.”

The candidates agreed on most issues discussed, and focused on the importance of education, the environment, affordable housing, healthcare and economic recovery.

The biggest clash of the night came after a question about Proposition 13 – a 1978 ballot initiative approved by California voters that capped property taxes, once a primary funding source for the state’s public schools.

A club member, in a written question, asked whether the candidates would vote to repeal the measure. “Yes, I would,” said Hancock. “I think that Proposition 13 was a very bad piece of legislation.”

Hancock said the measure has led to declining spending on education, and the loss of local control over school policy.

Ramsey differed. “I think it would be a very irrational act to repeal 13,” he said. “To eliminate a law that has been in place for almost a quarter century would create havoc in the economy.”

Ramsey, who is African-American, said the rise in property taxes that would result from the repeal of Proposition 13 would hit people of color particularly hard.

Brown also opposed the repeal of the law, arguing that rising property taxes would harm senior citizens on fixed incomes. “It’s unfair to pull the rug out on them,” Brown said.

Susan Wengraf, president of the Berkeley Democratic Club, said the debate over Proposition 13 caught her eye. “If Loni is in favor of repealing 13, that really does hit the pocketbooks of long-time residents,” she said.

Wengraf said that, ultimately, Ramsey’s skill at getting things done set him apart. “I think Loni is an idealist...but I’m not sure she’s effective at implementing it,” she said. “And I think Charles is a problem-solver.”

Mayor Shirley Dean was also impressed with Ramsey. “I think he came across as a very steady, serious candidate who is well-informed on educational issues,” Dean said, “not on the theoretical level, but on the day-to-day level.”

Several club members said they liked Brown, but that he was simply too inexperienced at this point to be an Assemblymember.

Joaquin Rivera, vice president of the Berkeley Board of Education, said the Democratic Club made a good decision in endorsing Fox Ruby, arguing that she could help to heal divisions on the county board, one of Fox Ruby’s leading arguments for her candidacy.

Kriss Worthington, a progressive City Council member aligned with Berkeley Citizens Action, the more liberal political club in the city, said the BCA will make its endorsements on Feb. 3 at the North Berkeley Senior Center.

Worthington, who removed himself as a candidate for the Assembly in favor of Hancock’s candidacy, said that he was surprised to hear about Ramsey’s position on Proposition 13. “It’s a pretty shocking position to take in the Democratic Party,” he said, arguing that progressives are pushing for a repeal of the proposition, combined with a shift of the property tax burden from homeowners to commercial real estate owners.

A recent exhibit at the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum explored the concept of environmentally responsible architecture. The buildings presented in the exhibit were designed and built within the past few years and their design was distinctly contemporary.

But in Berkeley there are many buildings designed in the early years of the 20th century which meet the criteria of environmentally responsible design and provide inspiration to contemporary architects.

Julia Morgan’s 1929 Berkeley City Club is an excellent example and can serve as an inspiration for contemporary environmentally responsible architecture.

Rather than building a solid, six-story structure, Morgan designed a Gothic-Romanesque styled reinforced-concrete building with a central tower of six stories flanked by two, two-story wings. The building is not treated symmetrically and the wings are not the same height nor do they have the same decorative detailing or fenestration.

The interior is designed around two courtyards, which are lushly landscaped. These allow light and air into the center of the building, are large enough for substantial plantings, and provide views of foliage and flowers from various rooms and corridors. The windows are operable and framed in steel, some in a diamond pattern reminiscent of medieval leaded windows. The entrance hall contains a grand staircase with gothic details.

The building was designed to accommodate a variety of functions and there are reception rooms of various sizes, a large ballroom/auditorium, large and small dining rooms, a library, tearoom, and several floors of residential rooms. On the second floor is an open garden terrace, covered by an awning, overlooking one of the courtyards. The club is well known for its beautiful tiled swimming pool. Morgan also designed the light fixtures, furnishings, dishes, and even the linens.

The Berkeley City Club, originally the Berkeley Women’s City Club, was organized in the late 1920s as part of the Progressive Era, and is a significant expression of women having attained a place in the community. The City Club was dedicated to cultural, educational, and philanthropic activities.

Susan Cerny is author of “Berkeley Landmarks” and writes this in conjunction with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association

I write out of my own concern about the work environment at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and because it is a situation that I think the taxpayers that fund LBNL should be aware of.

The Coalition of University Employees has filed a grievance with the Lab on behalf of a female worker (who prefers to remain anonymous) documenting the verbal and physical harassment that she has been experiencing for over three years. Previous to this grievance she had, on numerous occasions, contacted her supervisors and upper level management about the situation and was told to “work it out with him (her harasser).” The alleged harassment has included verbal attacks and physical intimidation including blocking her into her office and violently slamming doors. In one incident a manager in her department allegedly told her “if you don’t shut up, I’ll slap you.”

Despite the duration and severity of this harassment and the fact that numerous witnesses can attest to its validity, the Lab management has offered no resolution to the situation at the first two steps of the grievance process. The Lab’s lack of effort in remedying this harassment comes at a time when they have also come under fire for other issues of harassment and discrimination. The Lab recently settled a lawsuit that showed that it had illegally performed medical tests on African- American employees that were not performed on other employees. Not a good record for our National Laboratory.

Of course you’d love to give a work of art of heart-stopping beauty to a person dear to you, at this gift-giving season. Perhaps a small Renoir portrait, a folk-art carving, or a museum-quality Oriental embroidered panel?

Not a hope — such items are often not for sale, and anyway the prices might well be in the thousand- or million-dollar range.

As reminders of art seen, and perhaps not currently on view, or as introductions to new works, books condense within their covers an unparalleled power to evoke the splendor and emotion of the originals.

“American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum” (American Folk Art Museum-Abrams, $75) by Stacy C. Hollander coincides with the opening of the museum’s new building in midtown Manhattan, and Esmerian’s gift of his stunning collection.

The famous portrait Ammi Phillips painted of “Girl in Red Dress With Cat and Dog” (circa 1830-1835) may be familiar, and yes, we’d all be thrilled to get that as a present — but a fetching variety of other portraits in the collection vie with it in their ability to connect.

Turning to 3-D objects, how about a comically proud little red-glazed earthenware lion made in Pennsylvania around 1850 — or a suave 6-foot Tin Man (1930), or Dapper Dan (circa 1880) carved in wood?

No need to gift-wrap them separately, they come with the book, more than half of whose 572 pages are occupied by color photographs, but which also includes a complete catalog of Esmerian’s collection.

The collection is on show as the inaugural exhibition of the new museum premises through June 2002.

In contrast to the American museum book, “Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art” (Abrams, $85) introduces us to living artists — we meet about 180, see their portraits and their vibrant work. Dramatic photos of the art works in high-saturation color against black backgrounds exude the energy of the culture.

Traditional materials, clay, silver, wood, textiles and stone, emerge in forms that range from deeply traditional to quite astonishing, or incorporate both characteristics.

The work of Manuel Jimenez Ramirez is an example. He’s a renowned wood carver from a village in the state of Oaxaca who fashions figures for creches, but also produces brightly painted fantasy figures based on mythical animals. Illustrations of the latter practically leap off the pages of the book.

The art works are from the collection of Fomento Cultural Banamex, a Mexico City organization that supports Mexican folk artists and international traveling exhibitions of their works.

The Asia Society is also marking a reopening with an exhibition and an accompanying richly illustrated book.

The Manhattan museum’s building, which was closed for renovation and expansion, is now in business again with the exhibition documented in “Monks and Merchants: Silk Road Treasures From Northwest China” (Asia Society-Abrams, $65) by Annette L. Juliano and Judith A. Lerner.

Stone, ceramic and bronze figures of supreme grace and power are among treasures featured in this collection that many of us would happily see on our living room shelves. Gold and silver jewelry, too, from the same fourth-to seventh-century period are equally pleasing, equally available only to gaze at, but just as generously illustrated in the book.

The text tells us that many of the objects from this historically significant period and region have been excavated only recently and are new to Western eyes. The exhibition is on view in New York through Jan. 6, and will then be shown at the Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach, Fla., Feb. 9 to April 21.

“Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art” (Tinwood Books, $100) by William Arnett and Paul Arnett brings into focus a richly varied body of work by contemporary grass-roots artists of the South that goes far beyond folk art in its imaginative reach.

A first volume of this study published in 2000 dealt with the earlier phases of the genre. In this handsome second volume, the authors look at paintings, sculpture and mixed media works of many artists of the 1980s and ’90s, with separate chapters focusing on 30 or so individuals.

Photos of the works, including many pieces that have never been published, bring vivid life and color to the pages; much of the art is shown in the context of the artist’s home or environment.

Among books focusing on individual artists, some show recent works that would not fit into any conventionally scaled home. The bookshelf comes into its own with one such, “Anselm Kiefer” (Abrams, $85) by Daniel Arasse.

Kiefer, born in 1945 in Germany, is often described as controversial for his austere paintings, installations and sculpture, often monumental in size, often with darkly disturbing visual themes related to World War II and its aftermath.

The book reproduces many of these acclaimed and highly influential works; even in page size, their strength, mystery and stark beauty is evident.

Among other works about individual artists for those who already love or wish to know more about them:

“Caravaggio” (Abbeville, $95) by John T. Spike includes new research into the work and life of this marvelous 17th-century Italian painter, who is now often dubbed “the first modern painter.”

That comes from his robust originality, especially in showing religious scenes in contemporary settings with a realism uncommon for his time. Nearly every work extant by Caravaggio is reproduced in color in the book.

“Gustav Klimt: Modernism in the Making” (Abrams, $60), edited by Colin B. Bailey, does not solve the question of where art merges into decoration, a question that often comes up when the work of this Austrian artist is debated. It does, however, offer a generous selection of illustrations that conjure up his fin-de-siecle elegance with its contrasts and rich patterns, and its links with Art Nouveau and Symbolism.

In “Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South” (Thames & Hudson, $65), Douglas W. Druick and Peter Kort Zegers delve deeply into the intense friendship and sometimes rivalry that may have challenged the two artists to make some of the most significant advances in their respective careers.

Plenty of illustrations back up a text packed with intriguing details, quoted correspondence and anecdotal evidence of the artists’ vivid interactions. This is the companion book to an exhibition of the same title, on show at the Art Institute of Chicago through Jan. 13, and after that at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Feb. 9 to June 2.

Craft has its own aficionados, and among many books about them, two elaborate very different mediums:

—“Behind the Scenes of Tiffany Glassmaking: The Nash Notebooks” (St. Martin’s, $50) is an account by Martin Eidelberg and Nancy A. McClelland of the development and production of the famous glass that makes use of unpublished sources and images.

—“Ottoman Embroidery” (Abrams, $45) by Marianne Ellis and Jennifer Wearden may well inspire many an amateur to go look for needle and thread again. There are detailed pages of color illustrations showing the luxuriant work done during the long period the Turkish empire held sway (late 13th to early 20th century), with working diagrams of stitches.

Something for absolutely everyone on your gift list?

Art histories cover the whole spectrum, though many of them need strong wrists to handle — perhaps you’d better include book stands with your gifts. Among those available are two massive slip-cased works of scholarship, with abundant illustrations:

—“History of Art” (Abrams, $95) is the sixth edition of the reference work first published in 1962. H.W. Janson wrote the original text; his son, Anthony F. Janson, has been its author since his father’s death in 1982.

—“Art History” (Abrams, $95) by Marie Stokstad, a two-volume second edition of this comprehensive work of scholarship, which first appeared in 1995.

Finally, in contrast, “The Art of the Piano: Drawings” (Paragon, $24.95 hardback, $16.95 paperback) by John Diebboll is disarmingly portable, almost pocket-size.

The book’s delicately precise color illustrations are a witty series of designs intended for one-of-kind art-case pianos, drawn by Diebboll, New York-based architect and artist.

One piano design titled “Tortoise” is for his son, with a simple tortoiseshell-patterned case. Others borrow familiar shapes: see the “Guggenheim,” “Diner” and “Sail” pianos. And of course there’s inspiration from music, as in the “Philip Glass,” “Mingus,” “Aida” and “Carmen” designs.

The book is a small treasure that will not weigh any recipient down, in any sense.

“Every Inch a King” Jan. 11 through Feb. 9: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m.; Three sisters have to make a decision as their father approaches death in this comedy presented by the Central Works Theater Ensemble. $8 - $18. LeValls Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. 558-1381

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. 239-2252 www.acteva.com/go/havefun

“The Whole World’s Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960s and 1970s” Through Dec. 16: A documentary photo exhibition which examines the rich history of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Wed. - Sun., noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., Live Oak Park. Free. 644-6893

“Images of Innocence and Beauty” Dec. 19 through Jan. 8: An exhibit featuring Kathleen Flannigan’s drawing and furniture - boxes, tables, and mirrors, all embellished with images of the beauty and innocence of the natural world. Addison Street Windows, 2018 Addison St.

“From With These Walls” Jan. 5: Educational studio opening celebration gallery show of student works in steel, bronze, aluminum, cast iron, glass, neon, ceramic, stone and paper; jewelry. The Crucible, 1036 Ashby St. (Entrance is one block south on Murray St.) 843-5511, fran@thecrucible.org.

“Ansel Adams in the University of California Collections” Dec. 12 through Mar. 10: A selection of photographs and memorabilia presenting a different perspective on Adam’s career as one of the leading figures in American photography. Wed, Fri. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thur. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. $4- $6. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot by 40 foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Mon. through Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu

When it comes to Northern California dominance, the Berkeley High girls’ basketball team is usually right up there with De La Salle football. But although the Spartans won yet another NorCal title this season, times may be changing for the Lady ’Jackets.

Berkeley was outrun, outrebounded and outhustled by the Pleasant Valley Vikings on Friday night, falling 72-61 for their first home loss in at least two years. The loss is the third this season for the ’Jackets, and things don’t get any easier; they head to Phoenix next week for the Nike Tournament of Champions, where they will face some of the top teams in the country.

Friday night’s loss may have been a wake-up call for Berkeley, as the slower and smaller Vikings used backdoor layups and outstanding foul shooting to beat the vaunted ’Jacket press, committing few turnovers and getting good shots.

“Today was a good lesson for us,” Berkeley co-head coach Gene Nakamura said. “If we have 40-point blowouts every game we’d never learn anything. They had better fundamentals, and they beat us at our own game.”

Pleasant Valley point guard Lauren Himmelspach certainly played the role of teacher, shredding the Berkeley defense for 31 points and 6 assists, handling the pressure with ease, and the Viking starting five scored every point for their team. Forward Anna Griffin scored 15, while Erin Gonzales and Jamie Ferguson contributed 13 and 10, respectively. They were 27-of-33 from the free throw line, including a 17-of-20 effort from Himmelspach.

Pleasant Valley head coach John Shepherd didn’t use his bench much during the game, as Jessica Margia was the only Viking substitutute until the final 30 seconds of the game. Himmelspach played the entire game until the final four seconds, leaving to a standing ovation from the visiting Viking fans and begrudging applause from the Berkeley faithful.

“My kids just played within themselves, and they didn’t press,” Shepherd said. “They’ve been playing together for six years, and the things I teach are pretty simple.”

With an up-tempo game and a team famous for their depth, the j’Jackets should have had the Vikings gasping for breath late in the game, but it just didn’t happen. Berkeley got decent production from its starters, with Sabrina Keys and Natasha Bailey leading the way with 14 points each, but the bench, usually a strength, managed just 7 points.

After an initial bout of nerves that resulted in three straight turnovers to start the game, the Vikings calmed down and didn’t commit another for the rest of the opening quarter. Himmelspach found Griffin on backdoor cuts for two easy layups and drove the lane for two of her own as the Vikings built a 13-10 lead after one quarter.

Ferguson scored an old-fashioned 3-point play on another backdoor cut, but a Rebekah Payne 3-pointer and Keys turnaround jumper kept it close. The Vikings then went inside as Gonzales scored three times in the post to pump up the Pleasant Valley lead to 29-19, and two Himmelspach free throws made it a 12-point advantage, which they would carry into halftime at 40-28.

The second half consisted mostly of Berkeley making small dents in their deficit, but the Vikings always answered back with a run of their own. The ’Jackets got closest late in the third quarter when Bailey hit back-to-back treys to cut the lead to 45-39, but Himmelspach hit four straight free throws to put her team back up by 10, and Berkeley wouldn’t get closer than that for the rest of the game.

“I’m not surprised at all that we lost. That’s why we scheduled them. We knew they were a tough team,” Nakamura said. “What surprised me was the quality of the refereeing. It was horrendous.”

The officials called two technicals on Berkeley, one on freshman center Devanei Hampton for wrestling for a jump ball too hard, and the other on Berkeley co-head coach Herb Miller for a comment that was directed at Nakamura. Nakamura was upset with what he considered some poor calls when Miller told him not to yell at the officials, and one of the referee’s gave Miller at T.

“That was some bush league stuff,” Nakamura said. “Herb was talking to me, so how does he get a technical?”

Regardless, a Berkeley team with three losses with more likely on the way in Phoenix is not what Nakamura imagined to start the season. But he’s confident that his young team will come around in time for the playoffs in February.

“Come see us at the end of the season, and I think you’ll see a different team,” he said with a wink.

Berkeley police officers exchanged high-fives in Old City Hall Thursday night after the Zoning Adjustments Board voted to shutter the Golden Gypsy Massage Parlor for good.

City staffers made a convincing case to the board that the so-called massage parlor at 2628 Telegraph Ave. operated, in fact, as a brothel.

The board was presented with reviews of individual Golden Gypsy prostitutes found on the Internet. Police played a tape of a suspect confessing that he bought sex at the parlor for years, even after the BPD shut it down last July.

The police also said they discovered about 80 videotapes secretly shot at the parlor during a raid on the house of Thomas Robinson, the parlor’s owner.

The Golden Gypsy matter seemed incongruous with the ZAB’s usual business of weighing the desirability of new buildings in the city. It does have the power, though, to revoke the Gypsy’s “use permit,” which allows it to conduct business on the site – a power the board exercised with a 7-1 vote.

The permit, which was awarded in 1977, is for a massage parlor, and it stipulates that no “other activities” are allowed on the premises.

Though members of the planning staff, the city attorney’s office and the Berkeley Police Department made calm and professional presentations to the board, the tale they told was unquestionably lurid.

BPD Detective Stan Libed told the board that he was assigned to investigate the case in May, after the department received two letters from concerned citizens: one from a disappointed client who had hoped to get a real massage, and another from a member of a “well-known Berkeley family” who discovered, after hiring a private investigator, that her husband was visiting the site.

Libed said that another officer searched the internet for references to the Golden Gypsy, and found the reviews that were given to board members before the meeting. He then staked out the building and found condoms and related materials in the dumpster.

Shortly afterwards, the BPD sent undercover officers into the parlor. They were propositioned, many arrests were made and the business was closed.

Later, officers conducted a search of Robinson’s home, where they discovered videotapes that they suspected were shot at the Golden Gypsy.

When they returned to the parlor in October to confirm that the videos were shot there, they ran into a man coming down the stairs. Upstairs, they found a used condom, a bag containing lingerie, $300 and Robinson’s wife.

Deputy City Attorney Laura McKinney played the board the audio of the man’s confession to police interrogators. The man admitted that he gave the money and the lingerie to Mrs. Robinson, whom he knew as “Lacey.”

“The $300 was for what?” police asked the suspect.

“A massage and... other activities,” he answered.

“What activities, specifically?”

“Sex.”

The police asked the suspect to be even more specific, and he complied.

“When we left the Golden Gypsy, you received a call on your cellular phone,” the officer continued. “Who was it?”

“Lacey.”

“What did she say?”

“She said that she was sorry about what happened.”

“Did she say anything else?”

“She said she wanted to have her attorney call me. I told her I wasn’t into that.”

The ZAB spent very little time discussing whether or not to revoke the parlor’s use permit. Board member Dave Blake, however, did mount an argument in opposition.

“I think this is a moral issue, and I’m surprised it has gotten this far with the city,” he said.

Blake said that when considering a revocation, the board normally measured the violator’s impact on the community.

“It seems to me the worst detriment to the community here is increased parking and traffic,” he said.

“It’s certainly possible to run a bad house of prostitution. This is a quiet one. I don’t think it’s such a detriment.”

Board Chair Carolyn Weinberger reminded Blake that they had received a letter from a doctor that works in a medical office near the Golden Gypsy. The doctor said that she was often harassed and even propositioned when she walked past the parlor.

Blake conceded the point, but not his vote.

On Friday, he said: “If this were any other misbehaving permit holder, we would have just said, ‘Clean up your act, buddy.’”

Robinson has the right to appeal the board’s decision to the City Council, but according to Matt LeGrant of the planning department, he will not.

“The attorney for the property owner at 2628 Telegraph represented in writing, in the form of a letter to the city attorney’s office, that they would not contest the revocation proceedings that the board finished last night,” LeGrant said on Friday.

The attorney, William Berland, was not present at the meeting. On Friday, a receptionist in Berland’s office said that he refused to comment on the issue.

In her letter to the Planet (12/8-9), Deborah Bahdia of the Downtown Berkeley Association suggests that the draft General Plan’s Transportation Element is “not balanced” with respect to parking and transit.

She is mistaken. The Plan includes 11 policies and 43 actions related to parking, including actions that specifically call for improving the parking situation for visitors to the Downtown. It has nine policies and 45 actions related to transit.

For years, the city has, on paper, been committed to transit, but much more has actually been done to accommodate cars than to improve things for transit riders. The City subsidizes parking in its Downtown garages and lots by offering an hour of free parking. About 260 cars park for free each day in the Center Street Garage. Parking is also free on Sundays. And during weekends in December, shoppers in Downtown can also park at meters for free. By charging less than the market rate charged by private garages, the City forgoes tens of thousands of dollars in revenue each year. The Downtown property owners who Ms. Bahdia represents have benefited substantially from these generous subsidies.

Things are beginning to change. Balance is being restored. The City recently initiated the Eco Pass transit subsidy program for City employees. The Draft General Plan includes other actions for encouraging transit, as well as bicycling and walking.

Unlike the Downtown Berkeley Association, the Planning Commission has to take a broader view of transportation issues. It has to consider not only shoppers from out of town who complain when they can’t park right in front of a Downtown business, but also Berkeley residents concerned about the growing volume of traffic, which is overflowing onto neighborhood streets. The General Plan EIR identifies traffic as the biggest environmental impact facing the City. The commission also has to consider the mobility needs of the one fifth of Berkeley residents who don’t have cars.

The challenge is to accommodate some job and housing growth as well as growth in the Arts District without adding additional traffic and air pollution. This can be achieved by a relatively modest mode shift from cars to transit, bicycles and walking. Most drivers will continue to drive, but if a smaller percentage of trips are made by car, then growth can be accommodated without detrimental environmental impacts. The General Plan Transportation Element and the TDM Study recommendations provide the means for meeting this challenge.

At its meeting Tuesday, the City Council asked staff to examine creating tighter regulations on psychic businesses to ensure that “unscrupulous persons” don’t swindle trusting customers, especially the elderly, frail and lonely.

“We should at least be doing a background check to make sure that the people opening up these businesses don’t have criminal records,” said Mayor Shirley Dean, who sponsored the recommendation, “My understanding is that now all they have to do is simply open their doors.”

Dean said she authored the recommendation because of concerns of a long-time psychic business owner who is worried that new psychics in Berkeley are giving the trade a bad name.

“She would like to see the city regulate this type of business to protect innocent victims and maintain the integrity of her profession,” Dean’s recommendation read.

Both police officials and Dean said they have not recently heard of complaints of illegal activity at local psychic businesses.

Currently psychics, like other for-profit businesses, must apply for a business license. According to Planning and Development Principal Planner Matt LeGrant, there are no specific requirements that psychic businesses have to comply with.

LeGrant said psychic businesses fall into a catch-all category, which requires them to be approved by the Zoning Adjustments Board if they apply for a location in a small commercial district.

If the application is in a primarily commercial district, such as downtown or along University Avenue, the application can be approved by planning staff without going before ZAB.

Neither LeGrant nor Economic Development Director Bill Lambert could say how many such businesses currently exist in Berkeley.

Daniel Sabsay, president of the East Bay Skeptics Society, an organization dedicated to a comprehensive and responsible examination of contemporary claims of fringe science and “paranormal” phenomena, said that creating stiffer regulations for psychic businesses could backfire on the regulators.

“The problem is that issuing these businesses a license based on a criminal background check can easily be used by the businesses to confuse the public into thinking their psychic abilities and moral ethics have been validated.”

Sabsay, a software engineer who lives in Oakland, said the EBSS would like to see psychic businesses, especially those that offer psychic healing services, regulated in the same way a drug manufacturer is.

“Let’s figure out what these people claim they can do and then test their abilities,” he said. “Needless to say there is no psychic that could pass such a test.”

Four psychic businesses and the Academy for Psychic Studies did not return calls to the Daily Planet on Friday.

However Shawn Mountcastle, a minister of the Church of Divine Man, which sponsors the Berkeley Psychic Institute, did discuss - in a limited fashion - services offered by the church, which has operated in Berkeley for 28 years.

“The mayor’s recommendation does not really apply to what we do,” she said. “We are not like those businesses (store-front psychic retail) that the recommendation seeks to control. We don’t sell psychic services.”

Mountcastle is right in that any new regulations the city establishes won’t affect BPI, which has been established in Berkeley for many years.

But according to the BPI Web site (www.berkeleypsychic.com) the church does sell a variety of psychic-oriented merchandise and services including psychic tape recordings (between $40 and $90 per set), telephone psychic readings ($39.50 for 10 minutes) and even psychic vacation tours to exotic destinations such as Egypt, the Philippines and Nepal.

Bush claims that Iraq is solely to blame for the 500,000 deaths resulting from our sanctions policy. Why do progressives argue with American policy? Let’s look at the facts behind this smokescreen.

The United States supported Saddam Hussein for years while we knew he was gassing Iraqis because he was fighting our enemy Iran. When he then threatened our oil supply by invading Kuwait, he was suddenly (and rightfully) painted as the Adolf Hitler of the region (the “Butcher of Baghdad”). Papa Bush riled up the righteous indignation of the United States to free the region of the presence of this evil man. As we were chasing the Revolutionary Guards to Baghdad and encouraging the Iraqi Kurds and Shiites to revolt, suddenly the Papa Bush Administration made the unconscionable decision to halt. While hiding behind the limitations of a United Nations resolution, officials in the Papa Bush administration came forth with the following actual cause for the halt: Saddam Hussein was necessary to maintain stability within Iraq and prevent the country from fragmenting into ethnic divisions. Should we have left Hitler to run Germany after pushing him from France to prevent Germany from splitting in two for 40 years?

After watching Hussein massacre the opponents we encouraged to revolt, we installed a sanctions regime which we know harms the population of Iraq much more than Hussein. This is a policy of containment that we know allows Hussein to remain in power and “stabilize” Iraq and thus safeguard our oil supply, but at the cost of 500,000 lives. Does America really stand for democratic values? We should have installed a democracy in Iraq. After “freeing” Kuwait, did we listen to Kuwaitis and set up a democracy? No! We reinstalled an absolute monarchy! We support an oppressive monarchy in Saudi Arabia. Our international policy does not revolve around respect for democratic values as Baby Bush claims. It revolves around a stable supply of oil. The Union of Concerned Scientists has pointed out that raising fuel efficiency standards to 32 mpg would eliminate all oil imports from the Middle East. Remember this when you step into your SUV!

Floyd Lee Gill, owner and operator of Gill’s Ambassador Shoe Repair Shop in Berkeley for 48 years, died Dec. 12 from natural causes. He was 77 years old.

Services for Mr. Gill, who was born in Red Bird, Okla. and served in the U.S. Army during World War II, will take place at 11 a.m. Dec. 18 at Fuller Funeral Chapel, 3100 Cutting Blvd., Richmond. Visitation will be at Fuller Funeral Chapel on Monday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

He will be buried at the San Joaquin National Cemetery in Gustine, Calif.

Mr. Gill is survived by his wife, Argalee Gill, his son Cicil Gill, daughters Carolyn J. McGee and Linda Bailey, three grandchildren and one great grandson.

Here is a letter I have sent to one of your local businesses. It is important for the City of Berkeley to remember that actions have consequences. The city has often chosen to boycott businesses to express displeasure with policy, now I can do the same to the city:

Gentlemen,

As far as I can determine, you are the only Bay Area dealer for what looks like a great line of sailing boots made by the New England Overshoe company.

Unfortunately, you are located in Berkeley. Because your city government consistently takes positions that are hostile to the government of the United States, I refuse to shop there. If you think this is unfair, maybe you aren’t aware of the craziness your local government is up to. Check the link below, and email your City Council members if you disagree.

Following are some local-serving community agencies that can use financial and/or volunteer help. The Daily Planet is listing these nonprofits as a public service and does not have first-hand knowledge of the work of most of the agencies.

CASTRO VALLEY — Within a 10-month period in 1999, three women who worked in the same office at Eden Medical Center were diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer, a very rare and aggressive type of the disease that strikes just a few dozen women in the Bay Area every year.

One of the women died last month. Now, the other two are trying to unravel a medical mystery, and they suspect toxic materials in the building where they had handled the hospital’s billing for more than 13 years.

The suit, filed in Alameda County Superior Court this week, says the work environment led to various cancers and other illnesses. It also argues the hospital fired the employees for reporting the problems. The suit asks for unspecified monetary damages for lost wages and medical expenses.

Eden spokeswoman Cassandra Phelps denied the allegations, saying hospital and state health officials studied the building but came up with no problems another than an inadequate ventilation system that was later fixed.

The employees were not terminated, she said, but rather offered several options, including other positions, after billing services were contracted to an outside company. All of them declined the offers, she said.

For the second time in two months, Berkeley Medical Herbs, a medicinal marijuana club in the “Old Brick House” at 1672 University Ave. was allegedly held up by armed robbers on Thursday.

Lt. Cynthia Harris of the Berkeley Police Department said that the case was under investigation, and the BPD was not releasing any additional information to the public at this time.

A deliveryman for the East Bay Express alerted police after seeing a man take a stack of newspapers from a box near Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto Thursday evening, according to Harris.

Harris said that unknown persons have recently been taking the free newspaper off the streets in bulk and selling them for scrap.

After taking the papers, the suspect put them in a car and drove away. The deliverer noted the car’s license plate, Harris said, and the case is under investigation.

A woman was robbed and a passer-by threatened on the 2000 block of Berkeley Way Thursday morning, according to Harris.

The victim was walking down the street at around 11:30 a.m., when two men approached her from behind. One of them grabbed her purse.

A bystander shouted at the suspects to give the purse back. One of the suspects told the bystander that he had a gun, although no one reported seeing it. The two then fled on foot.

The suspects are described as African-American males between the ages of 16 and 20.

One was about 5 feet 9 inches tall and of stocky build. He wore a black jacket that reversed to gray and dark jeans.

The other suspect was about 5 feet 10 inches tall and of medium build. He wore a black jacket that reversed to white and green and dark jeans.

Another dog robbery was reported in south Berkeley on Wednesday, according to Harris. (In its Dec. 8 edition, the Daily Planet reported two dog thefts in South Berkeley.)

The victim told police that he had let a friend walk Sputnik, his German shepard/rottweiler mix, on Tuesday evening. The friend did not return, and the suspect called the police shortly after midnight.

The incident was entered into the books as a petty theft. The BPD is investigating.

A deliveryman for the Modern Express Courier company was held up and a bag of goods entrusted to him was taken Tuesday evening, according to Harris.

At around 5:30 p.m., the victim was loading goods into his truck on the 2000 block of Shattuck Avenue. The suspect approached, and told the victim that he needed a ride across town. The victim replied that the suspect would have to find another way.

The suspect then asked the victim to give him a large brown bag that was sitting on the passenger seat of the victim’s Ford Ranger. The victim declined. The suspect then opened his jacket and showed the victim that he was carrying a gun. The suspect took the bag and fled on foot.

The suspect is described as an dark-skinned African-American male in his late 40s. He was around 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed around 180 pounds. He had a mustache and a beard, and wore a dark watch cap and a dark green jacket.

Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call the BPD Robbery Detail at 981-5742.

Terrorist leader reminds one Bay Area resident of a gloating, smirking criminal

SAN FRANCISCO — Families of Bay Area terrorism victims watched with horror Thursday as Osama bin Laden celebrated the Sept. 11 attacks on videotapes released by the Department of Defense.

They called bin Laden’s reaction appalling, horrifying. Some wished they hadn’t watched it.

“He reminds me of a criminal who gloats and smirks in the courtroom in order to taunt the families he has victimized,” said Alice Hoglan, one of the thousands of loved ones left in mourning by the terrorist attacks.

Hoglan’s son, Mark Bingham of San Francisco, was among a group of passengers who apparently prevented United Flight 93 from crashing into a Washington landmark after two planes toppled New York’s World Trade Center and a third crushed part of the Pentagon.

Thomas Burnett of San Ramon called his wife, Deena, four times from the flight and told her he and other passengers planned to do something. They have been hailed as heroes for charging terrorists on the plane, which crashed in a Pennsylvania field.

“It was just horrifying. I’m numb for having watched it. It’s one thing to have a picture of Osama bin Laden, but it’s another thing to see him celebrating,” Deena Burnett said.

Jack Grandcolas of San Rafael lost his wife, Lauren, on Flight 93. He said the video was hard to watch.

“It’s a confession of guilt. It’s remorseless. It’s a joyous admission of guilt,” Grandcolas said. He said he felt satisfaction that bin Laden never mentioned Flight 93.

“That’s because it was the first win in the battle of good over evil,” he said. “That field in Pennsylvania wasn’t a target for anyone. And I find it almost providential that it was not far from the battlefield in Gettysburg, where other patriots died.”

SAN FRANCISCO — Officer Millie, a black labrador retriever, is roaming the Bay Area Rapid Transit system sniffing for riders who might have thought the train was an easy way to transport narcotics.

The drug sniffing dog started work Wednesday night as part of a new drug enforcement program by BART and U.S. Customs Service. The first day’s work resulted in four arrests. Three were minor citations, police said.

BART Police Cmdr. Wade Gomes said the program is a way to stem the drug transportation flow, which might become even more important after BART completes its new station at San Francisco International Airport next year.

BART is working together with customs agents, who are in charge of the dogs. The dog walks along and sniffs around the passengers. When the dog smells drugs, it simply sits next to the suspect and looks at him or her.

Dale Gieringer, coordinator of the California chapter of NORML, the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws, which supports legalizing marijuana, said people who use marijuana for medical purposes might also unfairly be caught and cited.

School board bans

sugary foods

OAKLAND — The school board has barred the sale of substances that are consumed in dangerous amounts on many of the city’s campuses: soft drinks and sweets.

Students looking for their daily sugar fixes won’t be able to score on campus anymore, the Oakland Unified School District board decided Wednesday over objections from some board members who said the move would take money away from various school programs.

Oakland may be the first district in the state to pass such a wide-reaching embargo against the sale of sweet drinks and foods, experts in the field of school nutrition said.

Whether the ban can be enforced, however, is another matter. And students and teachers say they use money from candy sales to pay for everything from camping trips to sports equipment to ink ribbons for fax machines.

Vending machines alone bring in an estimated $200,000 a year for schools.

CASTRO VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — Within a 10-month period in 1999, three women who worked in the same office at Eden Medical Center were diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer, a very rare and aggressive type of the disease that strikes just a few dozen women in the Bay Area every year.

One of the women died last month. Now, the other two are trying to unravel a medical mystery, and they suspect toxic materials in the building where they had handled the hospital’s billing for more than 13 years.

The suit, filed in Alameda County Superior Court this week, says the work environment led to various cancers and other illnesses. It also argues the hospital fired the employees for reporting the problems. The suit asks for unspecified monetary damages for lost wages and medical expenses.

Eden spokeswoman Cassandra Phelps denied the allegations, saying hospital and state health officials studied the building but came up with no problems another than an inadequate ventilation system that was later fixed.

The employees were not terminated, she said, but rather offered several options, including other positions, after billing services were contracted to an outside company. All of them declined the offers, she said,

Growing up in the West, except for the occasional trip to the mountains for a day or so of frolicking, we saw little snow. As children, we associated snow with fun and pleasure. It wasn’t until later that less pleasurable aspects of snow, such as shoveling and dealing with ice dams, came to light.

We then became familiar with a device that we had never before seen — a frost-proof sillcock. We learned that a sillcock is an outdoor water faucet or “hose bib.” What we had yet to understand was how a hose bib could be frost-proof. After all, on those rare occasions when the mercury dipped low enough to be a threat, we simply wrapped the hose bib and adjacent pipes with rags to prevent the pipes from freezing and, thus, bursting.

A sillcock is just another name for a hose bib. It is called by that name because it is typically located just above the “sill” — the board that is anchored to the top of a foundation. It also is mounted to the “header joist” which in some parts of the country is referred to as the “sill.” In other regions, it’s called the “rim joist.”

The pipe that supplies water to the sillcock has a shut-off valve located in the basement some distance in from the exterior wall. Thus, when the weather gets cold, the valve can be turned off and drained to prevent a burst pipe. Although it’s a reasonably good means of prevention, it can be somewhat inconvenient. And what happens when one forgets to close the shut-off valve and drain the pipe? The consequences can be disastrous.

Enter the “frost-proof sillcock.” It looks much like your run-of-the-mill hose bib except for the vacuum breaker that sits atop the valve. When a frost-proof sillcock is turned off, air rushes into the sillcock through the vacuum breaker to break the seal of water and help the residual amount to drain.

What is more amazing is what one can’t readily see. Unlike a traditional hose bib where the valve stem is an inch or two in length, the valve stem for a sillcock is six to 30 inches long. Thus, the valve is well within the exterior wall and protected from the cold and freezing. What’s more, you don’t need to worry about whether you remembered to close the shut-off valve, since one isn’t required.

Installing a frost-proof sillcock is reasonably simple especially if you have previous experience soldering. Besides the sillcock, you’ll need a torch, solder, flux, a flux brush, fine sandpaper or steel wool, a copper tubing cutter and a rag. Start by removing the existing sillcock. Close the shut-off valve and drain residual water from the faucet. Adjust the tubing cutter to surround the pipe and tighten the handle while rotating the cutter around the pipe. Remove the old sillcock and position the new frost-proof one in its place. Check the length of the supply line, make a pencil mark and — using the tubing cutter — cut the pipe again to correspond with the length of the new sillcock.

Use fine sandpaper or steel wool to polish the end of the water supply and the inside of the copper fitting at the end of the sillcock. Apply a small amount of flux (soldering acid) to both the end of the supply line and the interior of the fitting at the end of the sillcock, and join the two. Next, light the torch and, with the torch in one hand and a length of solder in the other, apply the tip of the flame to the fitting at the end of the sillcock. Be sure that the sillcock valve is open all the way to prevent damage to rubber gaskets from the heat. Place the tip of the solder at the joint between the pipe and the fitting and continue to apply heat until the solder is drawn into the joint. Move the tip of the solder around the joint and remove the flame to prevent the pipe from overheating. Use just enough heat to cause the solder to flow. Immediately after removing the flame, use the flux brush to apply a small amount of flux around the entire joint.

Turn the torch off and allow the fitting to cool. Use a rag to remove excess flux, and clean the joint. Finish the job by fastening the sillcock flange to the exterior siding with a couple of screws. First, apply a generous bead of caulk between the siding and the flange for a good waterproof seal. Turn on the water supply (once and for all) and flush the new sillcock before turning it off.

Q. Roy asks: Help! I recently moved into a house that has a wooden front door with a large oval window, which takes up most of the door. In the past two months a gap has slowly formed and grown between the door and the window molding. It is about 3/4 of an inch at the top of the window and tapers down as it follows the contours of the window. You can see through it to the outside. It appears that the window is settling. Is this possible? What can I do to fix it? Is there a caulk I should use, or will I have to replace my front door?

A. There is a very good chance that the base of the window was originally placed on wooden spacers — a very common practice with glass. It would probably be a good idea to remove the trim and inspect the window to see if the spacers have slipped out of place. Our guess is that this is what has happened. If you aren’t handy, you might want to pop the door off its hinges and take it to a door company. Someone there will know how to deal with the removal of the trim without damaging it or the glass. If you are able to remove the trim yourself, simply make and install new spacers, caulk the window to door joint with clear silicone and replace the trim. This job is easier if the door is on a table.

For more home improvement tips and information, visit our Web site at www.onthehouse.com.

Updating an older home, you’ve permanently removed an interior door from its jamb? And now the recesses for the hinges and strike plate remain? You can just paint over them, but it’ll look better if they’re gone from sight. That means filling in with putty, and sanding. It could take several applications and lots of time — and the results might still be less than perfect. The answer: First fill the recess with a piece of a paint stir stick. You’ll find the thickness of the stick is close to the depth of the recess. Just cut to size and glue it in place. Use one coat of putty to fill in around the patch. Follow with a quick sanding and a touch of matching paint.

BERTHOUD, Colo. — Bent over a 14-foot-long ponderosa pine log, Peter Haney gripped a 19th-century broad ax and meticulously shaved small slices of wood from its right side.

Haney’s green cloth chaps became sprinkled with sawdust from the knee down as he worked; his calloused palms were already dotted with layers of dried pine sap.

“This is backbreaking work,” the Fort Collins man said. “It’s about one of the most physically demanding tasks that I can think of in logging work.”

An expert in traditional building crafts such as logging, Haney spent several weeks building a new western wall for a 130-year-old log cabin that sits near the Little Thompson River southwest of Berthoud in north-central Colorado.

Crews with the Berthoud Historical Society uncovered the cabin in May after they bulldozed three clapboard additions previous owners had built around it.

The society wants to renovate the homestead structure and possibly turn it into a small museum.

For now, though, the cabin simply needed a western wall to protect it from the area’s wintry weather, and that’s where Haney stepped in.

A timber-framing teacher at Colorado State University’s Pingree Park campus west of Fort Collins, Haney is drawing from his experience in traditional building crafts to build the cabin’s remaining wall using tools and techniques from the 19th century.

Hefting one of eight logs that will make up the wall onto a pair of homemade sawhorses, Haney talked about how Colorado’s pioneers made their log homes more than 100 years ago.

Many times, Haney said crews of men and boys — women weren’t allowed to perform such work — would cut and hew logs in the forest using axes and hand saws so they were easier to pull back to the homesite.

Thanks to modern technology, Haney got his logs from a sawmill and used a chain saw to shave large chunks from the sides of the 300-pound logs.

After those initial cuts, Haney reverted to the old-fashioned methods and used a felling ax to make little chops in the logs that break up the wood fibers for the more delicate hewing process.

Walking the perimeter of the cabin, Haney pointed to similar marks in the original 130-year-old logs.

Because he’s been building cabins since 1980, Haney can identify which marks were made with an ax and which cuts resulted from hand saws or other tools simply by looking at them.

“The ax came in from that direction,” he said, staring at a handful of chop marks, “so I can tell this guy was right-handed.”

According to Haney, most of Larimer County’s log cabins — including this one — were crudely built because pioneers needed shelter quickly once they reached their destinations.

Still, Haney said the cabin built by Prussian immigrant Charles Meining southwest of Berthoud is in pretty good shape, and might be the last one like it in the Little Thompson Valley.

“It’s in good condition,” he said. “It’s not leaning too much.

“I couldn’t believe when I first walked in and saw this pioneer cabin entombed in a stick frame house.”

Continuing work on the new western wall, Haney begins the tricky process of fitting the new logs into existing north and south walls, which are no longer symmetrical.

Haney said the project had turned into an ongoing process of testing different notches and fits.

“I’m having to custom cut everything,” he said.

After Haney finishes the wall, the Historical Society will try to find funding to fully restore the cabin.

Member Mark French said the society still wants to apply for grants to help pay for renovation efforts and likely will hold a fund-raiser for the project next year.

Haney speculated it might be easy to get funding for the cabin if it is one of the only log structures left in the area, as he believes.

“On the plains there are very few left. ... It’s a very rare connection to the early days,” Haney said.

Years of protesting, complaining come to a head as one prominent performer opens a bloody wound on an elephant

SAN JOSE — This is the moment animal activists have all been waiting for: One of the most prominent performers in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is going on trial Monday for allegedly using a hooked stick to open up a bloody wound on an elephant’s side.

Protesters have complained for years that circus animals are consigned to miserable lives, trained with painful methods and inhumanely chained, caged and handled. But few circus workers have ever faced criminal charges.

Now activists hope the trial of Mark Oliver Gebel, son of the legendary animal trainer Gunther Gebel-Williams, lends more credibility to their claims against “The Greatest Show on Earth.”

“This is going to be a very interesting trial, mainly because it is Ringling, which bills itself as the top-of-the-line circus, with the best record, best resources, best treatment of animals,” said Richard Farinato, director of captive wildlife protection at the Humane Society of the United States. “This is pretty high-profile in the battle over whether circuses should use wild animals.”

Gebel, 31, is charged with elephant abuse, a misdemeanor that carries up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

His attorney, James McManis, calls the case preposterous. He said Gebel would never be anything but kind to animals, having grown up around them during the 21-year Ringling Bros. career of his father, who died in July at age 66.

“I think these animal rights people are making a big mistake if this is where they’re going to make their stand on animals in the circus, because nothing happened here,” McManis said. “This is going to be a big embarassment.”

In this year’s circus program, Gebel says he’s “grown up with many of the elephants here.”

“And the bond we have is as powerful as between any friends. These elephants are always there for us. In return, they know that we’ll always be there for them.”

Humane Society officers and a San Jose police sergeant were monitoring the animals outside a show here on Aug. 25 when they allegedly saw Gebel, wearing a flamboyant coat with a high collar and tails, lunge at two elephants and yell at them to move faster. They say an elephant named Asia quickly jolted forward.

The elephants went into the arena and performed, but after the show, the witnesses noticed “a nickel-sized red bloody spot” on Asia’s left front leg.

The witnesses believe Gebel punctured Asia’s skin with an ankus, a metal stick with a hook at the end that resembles a fireplace poker. Ringling Bros. says the ankus, or bull hook, is used to guide elephants like a leash or a set of reins, not to cause pain or discomfort as activists insist.

McManis contends that the red mark on Asia disappeared when she was washed later that day, and that a veterinarian found no sign she had been injured. He said the witnesses were too far away to clearly see what Gebel was doing and were motivated by an anti-circus agenda.

Last year, the same witnesses said they found cuts and puncture wounds on seven Ringling elephants performing in San Jose. Prosecutors said then that there was not enough evidence to bring charges.

This time, the witnesses’ reports were enough to persuade the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office to take the case. Prosecutor Carolyn Powell said she has gotten hundreds of supportive letters and e-mails from animal lovers around the world.

Among the supporters is Tom Rider, a former Ringling barn worker who now travels the country protesting with animal rights activists at Ringling performances.

“They use the bull hook in an aggressive manner every day at Ringling,” Rider said. “They hit them on the head, trunk, legs, shoulders — it’s systematic daily abuse.”

In 1998, the U.S. Department of Agriculture accused Ringling of forcing an ill elephant named Kenny to perform before he could be examined by a veterinarian. Kenny died, and Ringling’s parent company, Feld Entertainment Inc., settled the complaint by agreeing to pay $20,000 to elephant-related causes.

Since then, USDA investigators have looked into at least two complaints from the public about puncture wounds or lesions on Ringling elephants, including one “possibly secondary to excessive use of an overly sharp ankus hook.”

In both cases, the agency found no evidence of any wounds or abuse, though the inspections occurred 21 days after one complaint and four months after the other.

Pat Cuviello, 41, who has covertly videotaped workers at circuses in the San Francisco Bay Area for 14 years, showed The Associated Press footage of several Ringling Bros. workers — though not Gebel — poking or hitting elephants, in a few cases after looking around first, apparently to see if anyone was watching.

In one clip that activists hope will provide compelling evidence at the trial, Gebel can be seen briefly reaching with a stick, possibly an ankus, under an elephant before a show the next day near San Francisco.

However, Gebel appears to use the stick rather casually, while talking to a man next to him, and McManis said the tape in no way depicts abuse by Gebel.

Ringling spokeswoman Catherine Ort-Mabry said the other workers filmed by Cuviello were reprimanded for “unprofessional behavior” but did not harm the elephants. She said those incidents — and other complaints against the circus — are extremely isolated.

“If there is trauma to an animal, it shows up in the animal’s behavior,” she said. “You can see the obvious affection between the animals and the handlers. The animals are healthy, in good shape and they live great lives.”

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Interior Secretary Gale Norton says she supports forming a task force that would help her smooth money-management problems with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

“As your trustee, I have a responsibility to see that this system gets fixed,” she told tribal leaders from across the nation during a daylong meeting Thursday in Albuquerque. “I’m open to alternatives. I want to know, though, that at the end of this process that we haven’t let things go on as usual.”

Tribal leaders told Norton they oppose her plan to reorganize and consolidate the management of billions of dollars in Indian trust assets, saying they were never consulted.

“You should be looking out for the tribes,” Ernie L. Stensgar of the National Congress of American Indians, told Norton, who faces contempt charges on whether she misled a judge about efforts to fix a century of mismanaged Indian trust funds.

“If you’re going to have the trust of the tribes who you’re supposed to represent, you must do better than this,” Stensgar said.

Thursday’s meeting was the first of seven on the proposal to move trust responsibilities from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to a new Bureau of Indian Trust Assets Management. The next will be Dec. 20 in Minneapolis.

Last month, Norton announced the formation of the new agency to oversee the accounting of $500 million a year in historically mismanaged royalties from Indian land. The Bureau of Indian Affairs had managed the assets but a federal court ordered the system reformed.

The Bush administration wants the BIA to handle education, social programs and law enforcement and the new bureau to handle natural resources and minerals and the trust assets.

Navajo Nation President Kelsey Begaye of Window Rock, Ariz., said the Navajo tribal attorney general is asking Norton’s department for documents having anything to do with trust asset management since Sept. 1.

The request went to Norton on Thursday as a Freedom of Information request, and Kelsey said he wants consultation meetings halted until the Interior Department provides the information.

“We’re simply asking to be consulted, not insulted,” Begaye said.

Darnell J. Maria, vice president of the Ramah Navajo chapter in New Mexico, said the trust asset management will only create more red tape for people seeking Indian services.

“I’m afraid the new agency isn’t going to know how to deal with Indian people and Indian issues,” he said.

At a gathering of the National Congress last week, some 193 tribes adopted a resolution opposing the reorganization and transfer of trust responsibilities to the new Bureau of Indian Trust Assets Management. They suggested the Interior Department, which oversees the BIA, set up a task force that would allow tribes a chance to comment on what should be done.

Norton, in an interview with The Associated Press during a break in the meeting, said she would support a task force that would study her proposal and provide alternatives.

“There’s widespread consensus that we need improvement,” Norton said. “We need to work together now on what process will allow that improvement to happen.”

Norton said Thursday her agency has been criticized both for waiting too long to make a proposal and for consulting with tribes too soon in the process.

The Interior Department doesn’t have a lot of details to offer the tribes yet because it is awaiting tribal comments, she said.

“We are in a position of having to have a proposal for change. ... Until we have something to substitute, this is the best we have to offer,” she said.

Tribal leaders objected to the proposed changes and the way the administration has presented them.

Olney Patt Jr., chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, said the reorganization “is a defense strategy.”

“I think the final result is the BIA will be dismantled, and that’s our only presence in the federal government. We’d like to see it retained and not destroyed,” Patt said.

Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth opened contempt hearings for Norton and Neal McCaleb, assistant secretary for Indian affairs. A lawyer for the tribes has accused them of misleading the judge about efforts to fix the mismanaged Indian trust funds.

Lamberth must decide if Norton and McCaleb misled the court about the security of the Indian trust fund, concealed repeated failures of a $40 million trust fund accounting system and deceived the court about efforts to piece together how much Indian money was lost due to government mismanagement.

TUCSON, Ariz. — Federal, academic and international scientists will be eyeing Biosphere 2 this weekend to determine its suitability for climate research.

More than 60 specialists in climate and earth systems science research will gather at the once-controversial 3.15-acre sealed greenhouse with its own environment, independent of the outside world. A series of workshops and meetings Saturday through Tuesday is sponsored by Columbia University and the Energy Department.

“Scientists are a little bit like kids in a sandbox, and Biosphere 2 is just an incredible sandbox,” said Barry Osmond, president and executive director of the steel-and-glass domed giant terrarium 35 miles northeast of Tucson.

The conference is critical to the future of the Biosphere 2 Center, which is managed by Columbia’s Earth Institute, and is important to the emerging discipline of climate change — but DOE probably isn’t viewing it as a potential new national laboratory, Osmond said.

“It’s the only controlled-environment facility of that scale available anywhere on the planet to do experiments that are critical to climate-change science,” said Osmond.

The kinds of experiments Biosphere 2 can conduct will be critical to better understanding how the earth will respond to climate changes, he said.

“It’s the only place you can dial up the climate and run an experiment where you cause it to rain when you want it to rain,” or set a desired temperature or carbon dioxide concentration, he said.

At the same time, Osmond said he thinks it’s too soon for Biosphere 2 to be seen as a potential new national laboratory, such as Los Alamos, N.M., or Oak Ridge, Tenn., which focus on nuclear research.

“We’re still in the exploratory stage of climate change, and frankly this is the only device that is readily available for experimental kind of change,” Osmond said.

Among specialists attending will be researchers from the DOE, the Smithsonian Institution and five national labs, the Russian Academy of Science, institutes or universities in eight other countries, and more than a dozen American universities including Arizona, Arizona State and Harvard.

A report after the conference ends will assess the facility’s suitability for studying earth system science from the federal agency’s standpoint.

Providing experimental evidence for climate-change impact as part of the global warming issue has become part of the DOE mission, Osmond said.

Biosphere 2, financed at a cost of $200 million by Texas billionaire Edward P. Bass, debuted in 1991 as a space colony prototype, with distinct ecological sectors, or biomes: its own miniature ocean, rainforest, savannah, desert and farming area.

Eight “biospherians” lived inside for two years, growing their own food and recycling air, water and wastes, and the structure became a tourist attraction.

But crew members and operators were viewed as cult-like and critics questioned Biosphere 2’s scientific research, particularly when problems surfaced requiring outside intervention.

Subsequently, Bass ousted Biosphere 2’s administrators and turned day-to-day management over to Columbia University in late 1995, in hopes of shoring up its scientific credibility.

Columbia has used it for educational, environmental and global science research and tourism purposes.

Osmond noted that a National Academy of Sciences report just released lists the need for facilities for controlled-environment studies to help explore and understand climate-change science.

“We’ve got the prototype,” Osmond said. “We’ve had five years’ experience in making it work.”

The structure’s million-gallon ocean currently has 18 ongoing research projects, 10 run by other educational institutions partnered with Columbia.

Among its ocean experiments, a study has shown that coral reefs will be harmed as atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide increase.

A nonocean project is examining the impact of different levels of carbon dioxide on tree growth.

Biosphere 2 can and will undergo physical changes inside. “I think it’s still a work in progress,” chief of staff Chris Bannon said. “We are only restricted by the glass on the building.”

NEW ORLEANS — A freighter loaded with corn left for Cuba on Friday, the first commercial U.S. shipment of food to the communist nation since 1963.

The two-day voyage to Havana sparked fierce debate on the docks over the future of the decades-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.

Critics of Cuban leader Fidel Castro warned that the shipment may lead to the lifting of the embargo. Others, like Illinois Gov. George Ryan, welcomed the opportunity for increased trade between the two nations.

“This is a bridge we need to build,” Ryan said. “Corn is forming a bridge today that we need to build with the people of Cuba.”

Last year, Congress passed a law allowing U.S. companies to sell products to Cuba on a humanitarian basis. Archer Daniels Midland and other food processors have since signed contracts to supply more than $14 million worth of chicken, corn, wheat, soybean meal, rice and other foods.

The Cuban government said the 24,000 metric tons of corn aboard the first freighter will be used to replenish reserves lost when Hurricane Michelle struck Nov. 4, destroying crops and thousands of homes. The United Nations said Cuba could face food shortages in the next few months.

George Fowler III, general counsel of the anti-Castro Cuban American National Foundation, said his group favors humanitarian shipments. But he said unrestricted trade with Cuba will put money in Castro’s pocket to export revolution.

“Cuba is a terrorist nation,” Fowler said. “Castro has been at the center of terrorist activity.”

The first shipment includes corn from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin.

American farmers said they could send tons of agricultural products to Cuba if the embargo were lifted.

Four decades of trade sanctions against Cuba “have done nothing more than hand trade with Cuba to our foreign competitors,” said Ron Warfield, president of the Illinois Farm Bureau Association.

RALEIGH, N.C. — A death row inmate who is said to have the mind of a first-grader became the first person to have his sentence reduced under a new North Carolina law barring execution of the mentally retarded.

Superior Court Judge B. Craig Ellis declared Sherman Elwood Skipper to be retarded and reduced his sentence to two life terms Wednesday.

Skipper, 59, was convicted in the 1990 murders of his girlfriend and her grandson.

He was the first death row inmate to challenge his sentence under the new law, approved this year.

To be declared retarded under the law, a prisoner must have an IQ below 70 and show an inability to adapt to society before age 18.

Both sides agreed Skipper’s IQ tested at 69.

A hearing was held before Ellis last month on whether Skipper met the other conditions.

“The testimony clearly showed that our client had the mind of a first-grader,” said defense attorney Gretchen Engel.

District Attorney Rex Gore had argued that alcohol was the primary reason for Skipper’s problems with the law.

BALTIMORE — A public relations firm is under fire for inviting students with only straight, chemically processed or short hair to appear in a TV commercial for historically black Morgan State University.

Sahara Communications sent a letter — which arrived Monday at the university’s theater department — saying that students with dreadlocks, head wraps, corn rows or braids were not wanted for the campaign.

The request outraged many students, who saw it as a blatant attempt to portray a false image of the school, where 90 percent of the 5,700 students are black.

“It’s ridiculous that a black college would typecast its students,” sophomore Zakiyyah Seitu said. “For a long time, black people have had to change who they are so they can fit in, and a lot of us go to a black college so we don’t have to change who we are.”

The only two men in the theater department were told they could not be in the ad because of their hairstyles, and a female student was asked to go home and change her hairdo, students said.

While the filming continued, school administrators met with about 20 upset students and assured them that all interested students could participate, college spokesman Clinton R. Coleman said.

“The commercial was not intended to be exclusive from our point of view,” he said.

Sahara spokeswoman Karen D. Sloane-Thomas said company officials met with students Tuesday and “the issue discussed has been resolved.” The firm, owned by Morgan State graduate Sandy Harley, would not elaborate.

Morgan State signed a three-year, $1 million contract with Sahara in July and hopes to air the commercial next spring on area TV stations.

“They don’t want to portray Morgan as a historically black college, but other people have got to be aware, if they come to Morgan, they’re going to be around people with head wraps,” said senior Yullanda Hinds. “If you look around this campus, what do you see? Hair.”

LOS ANGELES — The number of Californians out of work topped 1 million for the first time in nearly five years in November, as increasing job cuts in the state comprised a disproportionately large amount of the national total, officials said Friday.

California’s net job loss in November totaled 53,000 non-farm positions. The amount represents 16 percent of the 331,000 non-farm payroll jobs lost across the country, although the state’s work force comprises only 11 percent of the national total.

California’s unemployment rate climbed to 6 percent — a level not seen since Sept. 1998 — up from 5.8 percent in October, according to figures released by the Employment Development Department.

“Cumulatively, the results aren’t as bad as the full national picture, but we contributed our share for the first time in a while,” said Howard Roth, chief economist at the California Department of Finance.

The seasonal spurt in part-time retail jobs did not match expectations for the holiday buying season, causing a seasonally adjusted loss of 11,300 positions in that sector.

“It looks like retailers think this is not going to be a very good shopping season,” Roth said.

November’s job losses were partially offset by a gain of 4,400 jobs in three sectors: government, mining, and finance and real estate.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, government added 3,200 positions. Though state government has imposed a hiring freeze, teachers continued to be hired as part of a long-term commitment to improve education.

The number of unemployed people in California reached 1,047,000 in November. The last time the state recorded more than 1 million unemployed was in January 1997.

The UCLA Anderson Forecast, a widely watched look-ahead on the economy released earlier this month, predicts the state unemployment rate will continue rising gradually and peak at 6.4 percent in early 2003.

“A lot of people coming to the job market in January will have to readjust their salary expectations,” said Tom Thrower, general manager of Management Recruiters International in Oakland.

Scott Tyler Shafer, 26, said he’s prepared to adjust his long-term career plans if necessary. He was laid off Nov. 30 from his writer job at Red Herring magazine in San Francisco. The publication covers the sagging tech industry.

“I’m not worrying yet,” Shafer said. “I’m trying not to take a bad job that I’ll be miserable in.”

Shafer would like to stay in journalism. But the bleak economic outlook has him weighing a wide range of occupations.

“I’m considering anything,” he said.

Despite the latest jump in unemployment, some business segments are still hiring. The biotech and medical equipment industries are contributing to the strength of the local economies in Orange County and San Diego, Roth said.

The pace of job creation within the biotech and pharmaceutical industries in California has not shown any signs of slowing down, according to a spokesman for Monster.com, the online career site. About 5 percent of all the California-based jobs listed on Monster.com are in those two areas, he said.

The defense industry, meanwhile, anticipates benefits from new federal contracts. Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp., a principal subcontractor to Lockheed Martin Corp. on the Joint Strike Fighter program, plans to hire about 700 people in 2002 to work on the project in El Segundo.

The company said it could add another 50 to 100 jobs if the government accelerates plans on an unmanned aircraft known as Global Hawk. Most of the jobs will be in engineering and manufacturing.

Northrop and other defense contractors are picking up some of the displaced workers from the beleaguered information technology sector for their skills in such areas as communication systems and imagery software.

LOS ANGELES — Media mogul Barry Diller could emerge as head of Universal Studios if Vivendi Universal buys the film and TV assets of Diller’s USA Networks, sources familiar with the negotiations said Friday.

Vivendi Universal confirmed earlier this week that it is negotiating with USA Networks to “increase synergies” with Vivendi’s production divisions, including its highly successful Universal Studios and USA’s distribution outlets such as the Sci-Fi Channel and USA Network.

Paris-based Vivendi emphasized Friday that the negotiations may or may not result in a deal and refused to comment on speculation regarding Diller’s role if negotiations are successful.

“Let’s see first if those negotiations are leading or not to an agreement,” Vivendi Universal chairman and chief executive Jean-Marie Messier said during a conference call with reporters. “Business issues first, then we will deal together with the personnel question.”

According to a source familiar with the talks, Diller could become chief executive of Universal Studios or a new company encompassing the assets of Universal and the film and television divisions of USA.

But Diller may not assume day-to-day control of Universal, which has been extremely successful in recent years under the leadership of Universal Studios president and chief operating officer Ron Meyer and Universal Pictures chairman Stacey Snider with a string of blockbusters.

Instead, Diller’s role could be more strategic and center on running the “transactional” parts of the company, including the Home Shopping Network and Internet divisions such as Ticketmaster.

Calls to USA Networks were not immediately returned.

Messier seemed to be taking pains Friday to assure Meyer, Snider and other Universal executives that their roles would not be eclipsed if Diller, who previously ran Paramount and Twentieth Century Fox, is named head of Universal.

”(We have) an outstanding team at the head of Universal Studios,” Messier said. “They are the key driver of the wonderful slate of successes of Universal Studios.”

Meyer and Snider are credited with leading a turnaround at the studio with major releases such as “The Mummy Returns” and last year’s “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”

I am writing to ask your opinion about some advice my husband gave me. I have a 1992 Subaru Legacy with 123,000 miles. I just had the brake pads and rotors replaced. My husband insists that I have to "break them in." He told me to apply steady pressure to the pedal and stop from 40 mph. He says I need to do this several times. Since I clearly did not understand his instructions, he had to do it himself. So now this is a purely intellectual question. Is my husband correct about breaking in the brakes? I don't know whether to believe him or not, since a lot of his actions around cars have a cabalistic aspect to them. – Alice

RAY: What a great word, Alice: cabalistic -- as if he's a member of a cabal, or secret society. I love it. And every wife in America is probably nodding her head in agreement right now.

TOM: Oh, I thought it was a reference to cabal TV.

RAY: Well, the old caballero happens to be right this time, Alice. New brakes should be broken in. Although, of course, most brakes eventually break in on their own if you just drive around long enough.

TOM: When we do a brake job on a car, we take it out and do exactly what he describes. We get it up to 40 or 45 miles per hour, and then apply steady brake pressure and bring it to a halt. Some cars are fine after the first time you do this, and some require several applications before the brakes feel good.

RAY: This "breaking in" routine also serves another important purpose: For those times my brother forgets to put the pads in or forgets to add the brake fluid, the surprise is on HIM during the "break-in" rather than on the customer when he or she leaves the shop and drives into the nearest lamppost.

TOM: What actually happens during this break-in is that the pads and the rotors are forced to "match up," or "seat," with one another. The new parts often start out either too smooth (so there's not enough friction to provide good braking) or not smooth enough (so there's not enough surface contact between them). And in either case, you can get increased stopping distances and/or brake noise.

RAY: And riding the brakes a little bit (which is essentially what you're doing when you apply constant pressure to break them in) gets the two surfaces completely in sync. Like they're members of the same cabal. Thanks for writing, Alice.

In tribute to a beloved teacher

TOM: Today's column is dedicated to Dan Gade, a friend we didn't know we had until we read this obituary by Sally Ryen in The Davis (Calif.) Enterprise:

Dan Gade not only restored cars, but he restored hearts as well. Students and staff at Davis High School were devastated Monday (Nov. 19) when the news reached them that beloved teacher Daniel Lee Gade had died over the weekend. Gade, 56, had taught auto shop and power tech at DHS since August 1994. In that short time, Gade made an impact on many Davis teens

“He took academic types and exposed them to the blue-collar world,” said Kathy Ware, whose two sons, Mike and Matt Erke, took classes from Gade. “Here were two boys who didn't exactly like getting their hands dirty, and he made auto shop come alive for them.”

Gade died in his sleep on Monday morning of apparent heart failure. He was found by his wife, Robyn, who is an attendance secretary at Davis High. Students and staff mourned for both halves of the popular couple.

“It's evident from the strong emotions exhibited by students and staff that Dan was dynamic, a much-beloved teacher, colleague and friend,” said Marilyn Mansfield, interim principal.

Gade taught in the Los Angeles Unified School District for 12 years before coming to Davis. He taught both industrial arts and art in Southern California. He took a break from teaching between 1981 and 1991 to work for Snap-On Tools in Sacramento, Calif., where he was promoted to sales manager.

Known for wearing wild shirts that displayed his love for all kinds of cars, the twinkle-eyed, smiling, mustachioed Gade reached a cross-section of students that transcended academic, social, economic and racial differences.

“He was a nice, grounded, all-around guy who talked to you as a person, and not as a teacher, to students,” said junior Christine O'Neil. “He was warm and loving, and it just made the class something to look forward to.”

All over campus, posters went up proclaiming love and affection for both of the Gades. Counselors sat with bereft students in the auto-shop building, where a sign went up that read: "Dan Gade: We love you with all of our hearts." Photo memorials sprang up on doors, while a photo album Gade maintained circulated throughout the school.

“One student told me that Dan had just told him last Friday that he was going to be a great man,” said counselor Courtenay Tessler. “He said nobody had ever told him that before. I said, ‘Well, Mr. Gade never lied, so I guess he left you with quite a gift,’ and the boy just beamed.”

One student wrote: “Dear Robyn: The reason why so many students loved Dan was because he respected all kinds of people. He was everything a teacher should be.”

An avid fan of the automotive wizards of Boston, Click and Clack, Gade had a tradition of reading their syndicated column aloud every week to his classes.

“Nobody could read ‘Click and Clack’ like he could,” said one student, “but we're going to keep reading it in his honor.”

Got a question about cars? Write to Click and Clack in care of this newspaper, or e-mail them by visiting the Car Talk section of cars.com on the World Wide Web.

Dangerous playground equipment, exposed piping and moldy bathroom floors are just a few of the safety hazards at LeConte School that parents and principal Patricia Saddler have been urging the district to fix for months.

“The building looks terrible,” said Martha Cain, co-chair of the LeConte Parent-Teacher Association, one of several parents who signed a Nov. 9 letter to Superintendent Michele Lawrence laying out maintenance concerns.

Cain said the district has not responded to the letter.

“We haven’t heard from them,” she said. “There’s been no response.”

Saddler said her official requests for school repairs have gone unanswered as well. “I’ve done my part,” she said. “I’ve notified the district and put the maintenance requests into the system.”

Lew Jones, manager of facilities planning for the school district, said the repair delays are the result of short staffing in the maintenance department, and lengthy bureaucratic processes that cannot be avoided.

Many of the parents’ concerns, for instance, focus on items in the school playground – a faulty swingset, a boarded-up wooden play structure and a pipe, covered with a porous metal crate, that attracts kids.

This year’s budget includes a $400,000 allotment for playground upgrades. In order to make proper improvements at LeConte and at other schools, Jones said, the district must go through the lengthy process of hiring a consultant to make playground recommendations, packaging together significant repairs and replacements, and seeking bids on the work.

On Nov. 14, the Board of Education authorized the district to spend up to $50,000 to hire Moore, Iacofano, Goltsman, a Berkeley consulting firm, to review the playgrounds and make recommendations. The district has not yet finalized the contract with MIG, Jones said.

Brad Lord, parent of a kindergartner at LeConte, said he is encouraged that the district is pursuing larger playground repairs. But, he said the system must do a better job of basic maintenance in the meantime.

“Neglect of the grounds allows for the continuing deterioration of the grounds,” Lord said, “and that lends itself to abuse.”

Jones said some of the upkeep is the responsibility of LeConte’s custodial staff, and not the district’s maintenance department.

For instance, parents and staff have argued that the bathroom floors were not properly sealed during school renovations in 1999 and 2000, leading to dampness and mold. Jones said the school’s custodial staff can do the resealing if the district provides the necessary sealant.

Other repairs, such as the proper handling of exposed pipes in the school yard and one of LeConte’s hallways, are the responsibility of the maintenance staff and will be addressed, Jones said.

Parents say that the appearance of the school grounds is almost as important as safety. Cain, the PTA co-chair, who is also a teacher at Longfellow, said the district must maintain its schools properly if it hopes to attract families which have fled to private schools.

“LeConte looks crummy,” she said, “and that’s your first impression of the school.”

Cain said the appearance is unfortunate, because the school is actually on the upswing, with strong leadership, a conversion to magnet school status this year and the recent introduction of a dual language immersion program that places English- and Spanish-speaking students in the same classroom.

A major reason for maintenance shortcomings at LeConte and elsewhere, said Jones and members of the district’s Maintenance Planning and Oversight Committee, is under-staffing.

The addition of new maintenance workers has been a controversial subject this year. For months, parents on the maintenance committee have called for the immediate hiring of more staff, but Jones has warned that the recruitment and selection process will take some time.

Parents and district officials have also sparred over the types of maintenance workers to be hired, with the district moving to hire “maintenance engineers,” skilled in several trades, while committee members argue that multi-skilled workers are too expensive, and difficult to find.

In the end, the schools will hire about 15 new staff members over the next six months, according to Jones, some sooner than others.

John Geluardi wrote (12/11/01): “According to the mayor’s report, her office has been ‘contacted’ by longtime practitioner of psychic consulting who is concerned that ‘unscrupulous persons’ who falsely claim psychic abilities are establishing extrasensory consulting businesses in Berkeley.”

For a good time you can search the bathroom walls for phone numbers, try a quirky new salsa recipe or get into your favorite pajamas to watch yet another rerun of “Sex in the City.”

For a very good time you might want to get yourself a copy of “Sweet Life: Erotic Fantasies for Couples,” a collection of short stories edited by Good Vibrations sex educator and Berkeley resident Violet Blue.

Blue is also the founding editor of Good Vibrations Magazine, a columnist and the author of two previous books on oral sex.

The title, “Sweet Life,” expressed in Italian as La dolce vita, refers to a life experience rich in steamy savory pleasures.

The couples described in the the book’s 21 short works of fiction certainly do appreciate pleasure. In each story one or both members of a heterosexual couple introduces a forbidden sexual fantasy or tantalizing obsession – ranging from spankings to strap-ons. The plot thickens as the fantasy or obsession is transformed into reality.

These stories are described in Blue’s introduction as “addictive, hot little reads.”

I would have to agree. To my delight, many of these stories include literary and/or lavishly sensual touches that even the most stereotypically repressed librarian would have to (ahem) enjoy.

In “Roger’s Fault,” author, Eric Williams cunningly constructs a story replete with unpredictable developments and some near-poetic lines such as:

“Vinyl skin reached out to touch me” and “pouring the lube in a slick river.”

In “Gerald,” by Alice Blue we get the wry, lovely, and somewhat tormented first-person narration of a police officer who thinks: “I remember thinking, as I walked up the steps to the little house… that anyone who blasted Beethoven couldn’t be a lot of trouble to deal with. I was wrong.”

Like Conan Doyle’s short story “The Purloined Letter,” starring Sherlock Holmes, there’s an astonishing object in plain sight in “Gerald” – but this time it isn’t a letter.

Each of the fictional characters in “Sweet Life” is engaged in a voyage of discovery. Because this book does qualify as erotica (vs. pornography), yes, Virginia, there is even some interesting characterization along with a satisfyingly perverse and diverse range of subject matter.

As in any work in this genre, there are the ubiquitous cute story titles. Examples from “Sweet Life” include: “Check Your Inhibitions by the Door” by Ann Blakely, “Roaming Charges” by Charlotte Pope, and “Bob & Carol & Ted (But Not Alice)” written by M. Christian, the author of another newly released collection, Dirty Words.

These are imaginative, well-written, and sexy stories. You wouldn’t want to throw even one out of bed.

Here’s a taste from “Playing Doctor” by Dante Davidson:

“My fantasies are getting stranger,” Katie began. Her voice was low, even though it was only the two of us in the room.

“Every Inch a King” Jan. 11 through Feb. 9: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m.; Three sisters have to make a decision as their father approaches death in this comedy presented by the Central Works Theater Ensemble. $8 - $18. LeValls Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. 558-1381

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. 239-2252 www.acteva.com/go/havefun

“The Whole World’s Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960s and 1970s” Through Dec. 16: A documentary photo exhibition which examines the rich history of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Wed. - Sun., noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., Live Oak Park. Free. 644-6893

“Images of Innocence and Beauty” Dec. 19 through Jan. 8: An exhibit featuring Kathleen Flannigan’s drawing and furniture - boxes, tables, and mirrors, all embellished with images of the beauty and innocence of the natural world. Addison Street Windows, 2018 Addison St.

“Ansel Adams in the University of California Collections” Dec. 12 through Mar. 10: A selection of photographs and memorabilia presenting a different perspective on Adam’s career as one of the leading figures in American photography. Wed, Fri. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thur. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. $4- $6. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot by 40 foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Mon. through Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu

Berkeley High girls’ soccer coach Suzanne Sillett intentionally scheduled a very tough pre-league schedule for her team this year, intending to get the young ’Jackets ready for ACCAL play. But if the first two games are any indication, Sillett didn’t need to worry too much.

Coming off of an easy win against league newcomer Hercules on Tuesday, the ’Jackets kept the momentum going with a 10-0 whipping of Encinal on Thursday night in Berkeley. Sophomore forward Maura Fitzgerald scored a hat trick in the first 26 minutes of the match, and Berkeley got goals from seven different players in the comprehensive victory.

“Games like this are an opportunity to work on what we’ve been practicing in a game situation,” Sillett said. “Changing the point of attack is something we’ve been trying to do, and we did that well tonight.”

The tone was set right away, as Berkeley nearly scored before a Jet player touched the ball. The ’Jackets (3-5 overall, 2-0 ACCAL) took the opening kickoff down the field, and Hannah Grenfell’s header from a Fitzgerald cross just missed going in. But Berkeley kept the ball in the Encinal end and Fitgerald scored two minutes later on a breakaway. She had a chance for another score on the next possession when forward Annie Borton found her wide open in front of the Encinal goal, but Fitzgerald shot right at the Jet goalkeeper.

Encinal managed to hold the ’Jackets scoreless for the next 15 minutes, but then Berkeley midfielder Rocio Guerrero put Laila Nossier through on the goal. Nossier cut one way to beat the last defender, then slid the ball past the goalkeeper with the outside of her foot for a 2-0 Berkeley lead.

Fitzgerald scored twice in the next eight minutes, prompting the Encinal coach to replace his goalie. The move paid off for the rest of the half, as Berkeley seemed to let off the pressure just a bit. But the Jets still couldn’t get out of their own end, managing just one shot in the half on their way to three in the game.

Encinal’s best scoring chance came just after halftime, as Berkeley goalkeeper Sara Corrigan-Gibbs gave the ball right to a Jet player, but the shot was right back at Corrigan-Gibbs, and the missed chance doomed Encinal to a shutout.

Berkeley let loose with an avalanche of goals starting in the 52nd minute. Freshman Dea Wallach started the flood by just beating the goalie to a Kira Mandella cross, and Borton got her lone goal of the match two minutes later, pouncing on a corner kick right in front. Midfielder Veronica Searles got into the act in the 60th minute, stealing the ball from an Encinal defender and scoring an easy goal, then Elise McNamara went through the Encinal defense on her own to score on a breakaway. Searles fed Wallach for another goal in the 70th minute, and Guerrero headed in a Fitzgerald corner to put the ’Jackets in double figures and close the scoring five minutes later.

So after beating up on two inferior opponents to open league play, is Sillett still glad she gave her team such a tough early schedule?

“It definitely prepared us, but we just have to make sure and maintain that intensity,” she said. “Any team can surprise you.”

After almost three years of strife, peace may be returning to the five listener-sponsored Pacifica Foundation radio stations.

The network’s board members and the listeners, local advisory members and “dissident” board members who sued them agreed to a settlement Wednesday in the Alameda County Superior Court. The agreement places the stations in the hands of those who have been fighting for a democratic board of directors.

“The good guys have won,” said Larry Bensky, who now volunteers as a programmer, having been fired by Pacifica in 1999 as national affairs correspondent. “We accomplished the best deal we could have gotten.”

“It’s a real opportunity to try to turn the network around,” added KPFA Interim Station Manager Jim Bennett. “Now we can get KPFA back on track financially.”

The fight that pitted programmers and listener-sponsors of KPFA against the Pacifica Board began March 31, 1999 in Berkeley, when Pacifica management refused to renew the contract of a popular station manager.

Programmers condemned the action on the air, and management instituted a gag order, demanding the issue not be made public. Programmers ignored the ban and Pacifica fired or banned several of them, eventually boarding up and closing down the station and broadcasting piped-in music.

Listeners reacted by rallying in the street almost daily, camping out at the station every night and even chaining themselves to the station doors. Their civil disobedience provoked 100 arrests during that summer. One march amassed 10,000 supporters.

The station re-opened about three weeks after it closed, and the fight moved to the state legislature, where the Joint Audit Committee asked to review Pacifica’s finances – the Foundation had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on armed security guards and a public relations firm that summer.

And the fight went to the courts – listeners and “dissident” board members sued the “majority” Pacifica board, contending that the board was not adhering to the network’s mission to serve its listener-sponsors, and was acting in an undemocratic manner, including withholding information on the finances of the foundation from board members.

The clash between listeners/programmers and the board spread to other stations across the country. One year ago, in what is now known as the “Christmas coup” WBAI-NY staff was fired and banned from the station. Democracy Now! the network’s nation-wide news magazine left WBAI alleging harassment by management and is now heard only on KPFA and Pacifica affiliates, and not on the other four Pacifica stations.

Wednesday’s agreement is the resolution of four consolidated lawsuits, which had been slated to go to trial Jan. 8. It states that the interim board will serve for 15 months and will be comprised of:

• Five members chosen from the present “majority” board. (They are Marion Barry, former Washington, D.C. mayor, Wendell Johns, a vice president at Fannie Mae; George Barnstone, James Furguson, Burt Lee.)

• The five members of the present “minority” board. (Tomas Moran and Pete Bramson of KPFA, Leslie Cagan of WBAI-New York, Rob Robinson of WPFW-Washington, D.C. and Rabbi Aaron Kriegel of KPFK-Los Angeles.)

• Five members, one chosen from each of the five stations’ local advisory boards. (These members will eventually be replaced by persons selected from elected local advisory boards – at present only KPFA elects its LAB.)

KPFA activists say the current “minority” position will become the majority, since “dissidents” control four out of the five local advisory boards.

Decisions will be made by majority vote, but that majority must have one vote from each of the three different interest groups on the board, or must garner two-thirds support. If no consensus can be reached, then the board takes the question to Judge Ronald Sabraw of Alameda County Superior Court for resolution.

While she signed on to the agreement, litigant and KPFA activist Barbara Lubin says she would have preferred that decisions be made by a simple majority vote. But “it’s as good as we can get,” she said.

Sherry Gendelman, chair of KPFA’s Local Advisory Board, was more upbeat: “We got what we needed to achieve the restoration of the network,” she said. “It gives us the basic tools and structure to pull this off.”

The alternative would have been to “gamble” on a trial, said Gendelman, an attorney. She said that she thinks any impasse will be easily resolved in Judge Sabraw’s court.

The board will be charged with writing new bylaws as well as resolving a number of questions the settlement describes as “hot issues.”

They include the question of returning “Democracy Now!” to all five stations; the question of Pacifica National News stringers who went out on strike, protesting censorship of the news by Pacifica management; the fate of the New York station staff fired and banned from WBAI; the issue of doing an audit and hiring a comptroller; ending gag rules, currently imposed at the four stations other than KPFA.

Barbara Lubin said she was exhausted from the fight, but cautioned that it’s not yet over. It is still to be a “long, long struggle,” she said, noting that the foundation is $2 - $3 million in debt.

Interim Station Manager Bennett, who has had to concentrate on keeping the station running – Pacifica is behind paying KPFA’s bills – said that now he can focus on what is important. “It gives us more of a chance to concentrate on radio.”

Robert Farrell, former Los Angeles city councilmember, a member of the board “majority” and chair of the Pacifica Board until the new board is formally constituted – possibly next week – said he is elated by the agreement. “It points Pacifica in a new direction, toward a new future,” he said. “It will be a challenge to all of us to keep this momentum going.”

And Bensky said it would give stations across the country an opportunity to hear programming which fulfills the mission of the station, founded in 1949 by pacifists. The fact that people in four listener areas could not hear Democracy Now!, the news reported by the striking Pacific Network News stringers and Bensky’s national perspective, especially during the critical post 9-11 era, “is in direct conflict with the mission of the organization,” Bensky said.

Turning his attention to Pacifica supporters, he added: “We accomplished this only because of tens of thousands of people who would not give up and would not let us give up. It’s heartening to see how many people get it – free speech has to be fought for. We can’t let it be stolen.”

John Geluardi wrote (12/11/01): “According to the Mayor’s report, her office has been ‘contacted’ by longtime practitioner of psychic consulting who is concerned that ‘unscrupulous persons’ who falsely claim psychic abilities are establishing extrasensory consulting businesses in Berkeley.”

The East Bay Skeptics Society proposes that all so-called psychic’s be “registered” only if they can pass a scientific test of their “powers”. We will be happy to consult with the city of Berkeley to help design such a test.

NEW YORK – His long hair trimmed and his goatee shaved, Jason Giambi stepped into Yankee Stadium wearing a three-piece suit and looking like a new man.

As in, the kind of guy who puts on pinstripes for a living.

After weeks of anticipation, the prime free agent and the New York Yankees made it official Thursday: He signed a $120 million, seven-year contract.

“This is my best fit,” said Giambi, who briefly choked up at the podium. “This was the team I was hoping would come after me.”

Once he became a free agent, Giambi seemed destined to sign with the Yankees. But the A’s had their chance long ago to lock him up.

Last spring, Giambi turned down a $91 million, six-year extension offered by the Athletics because they refused to include a no-trade clause.

“The A’s never moved where they stood,” Giambi said.

On Thursday, Athletics co-owners Steve Schott and Ken Hofmann tried to explain how such a popular player got away.

“The Oakland Athletics made Jason a solid offer that would’ve paid him more than one-third of our team’s annual payroll,” they said in a statement. “This is just another example that the economic problems of major league baseball are out of control.”

About a dozen fans met Giambi outside the ballpark when he arrived on a cold, damp afternoon. The slugging first baseman signed autographs and showed off his wild side, engaging a spirited bit of give and take.

“You know you’ll hear me screaming,” one man playfully shouted.

“I better!” Giambi shot back.

The 2000 AL MVP, Giambi was runner-up for the award this season after hitting .342 with 38 homers and 120 RBIs for Oakland.

Giambi, 30, also led the league in on-base percentage (.477) and slugging (.660) last season.

From City Hall to the Bronx, people were buzzing about the new big bopper.

“Jason Giambi has a star quality that fits in New York,” Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said.

“He’ll add a dimension to the Yankees that’s terrific as a slugger, the way Reggie Jackson did and Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth –– all left-handed power hitters.”

Giuliani, Berra and manager Joe Torre were among several luminaries who called Giambi, trying to lure the first baseman to New York. Former first baseman Don Mattingly wrote him a letter.

Berra was at the park to greet Giambi. While the entire Yankee Stadium field was torn up to work on the drainage system, the legacy of greatness was intact.

“I told him there’s a tradition here,” Berra said.

Not that Giambi needed to hear about all the history. He already knew it after growing up in California as a Yankees’ fan, idolizing Mantle.

Unable to wear the No. 16 he sported in Oakland – the Yankees have retired it to honor Hall of Famer Whitey Ford – Giambi put on his new uniform with the No. 25.

Giambi picked the number because the digits added up to the Mick’s No. 7.

“Well, pop, it’s not 7, but it’s pinstripes,” he told his dad.

His father, John, sat a few feet away and could hardly stop smiling. Also a lifelong Yankees’ rooter, he was momentarily speechless when Berra came over and introduced himself.

Giambi joined a team that has won four of the last six World Series. His contract includes a club option for an eighth year.

“You have the most incredible surroundings to win,” Giambi said. “Besides the money, all the other things, the intangibles.”

One thing that was very visible: a clean-cut Giambi, who said, “I wanted to make sure it was cut and shaved.”

His hair was free flowing and hung almost to his shoulders when he starred for the Athletics. That’s not the Yankees’ style, and Giambi seemed comfortable with his hair well above the collar.

“I’m just very happy to have him,” owner George Steinbrenner said in a statement. “He’s one great kid and I know he’s going to be a great Yankee.”

After losing Game 7 of this year’s Series to Arizona, New York swiftly made changes.

The Yankees traded for third baseman Robin Ventura and outfielder John Vander Wal and signed free agent Steve Karsay. They have reached preliminary agreements with outfielder Rondell White and pitcher Sterling Hitchcock.

But Giambi was the biggest acquisition. He became part of team that has not had someone hit even 30 home runs in 10 of the last 14 seasons.

Giambi’s left-handed power stroke is ideal for Yankee Stadium, with its short right field. He is a career .245 hitter at the park, with just one home run in 102 regular-season at-bats, but that was against New York’s stellar staff.

The Yankees chased the A’s from the playoffs in the last two seasons, both times in a decisive Game 5. Last October, Giambi went 4-for-4 while Oakland lost 5-3 in the final game.

Giambi takes over for first baseman Tino Martinez, who hit 34 homers.

“I know I’m replacing a great Yankee,” Giambi said. “He’s a winner. He’s got World Series rings to prove it.”

Bicycle advocate Jason Meggs stepped up to the lectern during the public comment portion of Tuesday’s City Council meeting and placed a portable tape recorder next to the public address system microphone.

“EHHH, EHHH, EHHH EHHH, EHHH.”

“That’s the sound of the gapping maw of death,” Meggs said referring to the recorded warning sound made at downtown garages when a vehicle is about to exit to the street. “That is the sound that warns pedestrians to give up their God-given right to walk down the sidewalk.”

Meggs, along with about 50 other bicycle and pedestrian advocates, attended the meeting to support a controversial Draft General Plan policy that calls for a two-year moratorium on downtown parking studies.

The policy, known as T-35, is designed to encourage commuters and visitors to use alternate transportation in getting to the downtown area, thereby taking pressure off the existing parking garages.

Bicycle and pedestrian advocates have argued strongly that increasing parking will increase traffic by encouraging more people to use their cars.

T-35 has been strongly opposed by downtown business owners concerned that the influx of new businesses, such as the Auroa Theater, Freight and Salvage Coffee House and the newly remodeled Central Library, will put too much pressure on existing garages.

The council is now reviewing the nine sections of the draft plan and has agreed to approve the Housing, Land Use and Transportation sections by next Tuesday.

The council set aside the plan’s more controversial issues, like T-35, so it could move quickly approve 14 of 20 staff-recommended amendments. The amendments the council approved, nearly all by unanimous votes, were generally minor changes such as language corrections.

The council will delve into the parking study policy, as well as a series of controversial land use issues such as an amendment written by the Ecocity Builders and the definition of “cultural facility” on Tuesday prior to approving the three elements.

Council urged to be “visionary”

Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition Events Coordinator Sarah Syed urged the council to create a more “visionary” downtown plan and then submitted approximately 120 postcards signed by people who support policy T-35.

Syed said the large showing of T-35 supporters was to balance an equally large showing of business representatives who spoke during the Draft General Plan public hearing last month.

“The council hadn’t heard from the public on this issue,” she said after the meeting. “The public hearing was dominated by business owners, managers and their employees, especially from the YMCA.”

YMCA Executive Director Fran Gallati said the YMCA is against T-35 because the downtown businesses are expanding and its important to at least be able to study possible parking issues.

“The downtown is rapidly becoming a vibrant place that has a lot to offer the community,” he said. “T-35 does not support a strong Y, a strong new Central Library and a strong arts district.”

Gallati pointed out the YMCA promotes alternate transportation to its members and employees including handing out maps with bike and transit routes, the installation of bike racks and touting the health benefits of walking. But he said some people, especially seniors and parents, are not able to use alternate modes of transportation.

Mayor Shirley Dean, who leads the council’s minority moderate faction, opposes T-35 and has proposed that a parking study of current parking needs and the projection of parking needs over the next five years given the number of businesses that are expected to move into the downtown area.

To the dismay of bicycle and pedestrian advocates, it appears there may be support among the five-member progressive majority for deleting the two-year moratorium on parking studies from the draft plan. Councilmember Linda Maio removed the two-year moratorium from her list of suggested amendments and instead has called for a visitor access survey.

“I suggested the visitor survey because visitors are the people who patronize the restaurants and stores,” Maio said. “Parking availability for visitors is important because that’s what makes for a vibrant downtown.”

Maio said she wants to convince downtown business owners to discourage their employees from leaving their cars parked in meter spots all day, which ties up the most popular parking spaces.

What is culture?

Another controversial issue that will be debated Tuesday is the definition of “culture facility.” A Planning Commission policy in the land use section of the draft plan seeks to encourage arts and performance organizations in the downtown by allowing developers to increase building heights by one bonus floor if they lease commercial space to a nonprofit “cultural facility.”

But Dean wants to adopt the Civic Arts Commission’s definition of “cultural facility” which would include for-profit arts organizations.

“I think the Civic Arts Commission is in a better position to define cultural uses than the Planning Commission,” Dean said.

Civic Arts Commission Chair Sherry Smith said the difference is that the CAC definition expresses a preference for nonprofits but also allows for profit art galleries, arts and craft supply stores and book stores to apply for the cultural facility bonus.

“The Planning Commission definition is too narrow,” she said. “What if there’s a for-profit organization that everybody wants in down there like the jazz school? The Planning Commission definition would exclude them.”

But Planning Commission Vice Chair Zelda Bronstein said that if for-profits were allowed to vie for downtown cultural space they would be have a better chance because developers are generally more interested in the lessee’s ability to meet rent payments than in supporting the arts.

“If a landlord has a choice between a nonprofit arts organization and for-profit business, the landlord will take the for-profit business, especially the larger corporate business because there is a better guarantee of financial security,” Bronstein said. “We have to decide, do we want to help subsidize another Barnes and Noble book store or a unique nonprofit like the Freight and Salvage Coffee House?”

The City Council meeting will be held Tuesday at 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way at 7 p.m. in the City Council Chambers. The meeting will also be broadcast live on the KPFA Radio, 89.3 and Cable B-TV, Channel 25

Here are some of the alternatives suggested by the Transportation Demand Management Study which can be implemented for a small fraction of the cost of new parking:

Commuter Check gives a tax break to employees who use transit. Employers even save money as their payroll tax contribution decreases.

More frequent, attractive bus and BART service with night time hours would help many gain access to downtown. The $35,000 cost of building one parking space could provide 500 hours of additional bus service. When some take public transit, it leaves ample parking for those still driving. At present, all day owner and employee vehicles fill spaces meant for shoppers.

The Class Pass used by UC Berkeley students works well. An Eco-pass for all city, UC Berkeley and downtown employees would encourage many to consider switching from driving and parking. The Downtown Berkeley Association could sponsor an Eco-pass program for members’ employees. The city’s Eco-Pass has been instantly popular. Each time one Eco-pass works (there is one less parked car) $35,000 of our tax dollars can go to sewers, streets and sidewalks, affordable housing or the arts – not to parking.

Free parking to van and car pools reduces the need for parking spaces, freeing spaces for people who truly have to drive and park.

An arts and entertainment nighttime parking pass program would assure the prime parking for Arts District events. Anyone could pay to park; arts pass holders park for free. Arts passes could be purchased when ticket holders order tickets.

Better signs telling people where parking and transit connections are located reduces search congestion, better using our present resources.

Incentives to existing parking garages to remain open to the public at night creates more parking spaces without the costs of construction. There are more than 1,000 such spaces currently underutilized in or near downtown Berkeley.

Moving all day and monthly parkers out of existing garages and onto transit or remote parking frees those spaces for shoppers and visitors.

It’s only prudent to determine what our true resources and needs are before we spend money on a presumed gap between need and supply. This is how we “solved the energy crisis” we lowered peak demand by conservation not by new construction.

That’s the orderly process T-35 proposes for downtown: 1. Conservation of our existing parking resources for those who need them most by switching some who don’t to other travel modes, lowering peak demand; 2. Assess visitor access and the remaining demand as compared to the supply; 3. Spend scarce tax dollars to build more parking garages only if still needed. TDM predicts that if a modest 3 percent of all day parkers switch, we will have an adequate supply.

T-35 is the balanced approach. The draft General Plan’s Policy T-35 is also a sensible tax-saving approach – move some all-day commuters out of parking spaces downtown while continuing to accommodate the business, shopper, and visitor short term parking.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Cal swimmer Natalie Coughlin was named the female November 2001 Athlete and Team of the Month Award winner for athletic accomplishments during the month by the United States Olympic Committee on Wednesday.

Coughlin nearly swept the women’s race. The Cal sophomore had a memorable month, winning nine events in five days from Nov. 27 to Dec. 2. Coughlin set two world records, two American records and six meet records while participating in the FINA World Cup in East Meadow, N.Y., and the Texas Invite in Austin, Texas.

Swimming in the World Cup, Coughlin broke world records in the 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke (short course meters), earning her first world records ever. Her 200-meter back record was 1.5 seconds faster than the previous mark, and her 100-meter world record was 1.4 seconds faster than the old record. She followed those performances with an American and U.S. Open record in the 50-meter fly. On the first day of the Texas Invite, Coughlin posted the second-fastest time ever in the 100-yard fly, setting a new meet record; she also won the 50-yard free in 22.51, making her the 10th-fastest in history in the event.

Topping the voting in the men’s race was 2001 U.S. National champion Sean Townsend. Representing USA Gymnastics, Townsend earned a World Championship gold medal on the parallel bars, claiming the first gold medal for the U.S. men’s team since 1979.

In a Dec. 3 letter attacking his long enemies’ list, Richard Register saved an especially vicious attack for City Councilmember Dona Spring. Such name-calling, regardless of its target, abuses these pages and degrades public discourse.

Let’s call Richard’s bluff when he claims, “It’s time for progressives to get real about strategies to actually deliver housing and environmental policy....” In fact, this is what hundreds of Berkeley residents (of all political persuasions) accomplished in open public meetings over the last 2-1/2 years. The resulting draft General Plan is one of the “greenest” city plans ever written, with unusually strong affordable-housing policies. The City Council should pass it – essentially intact.

The “Ecocity Amendment” that Richard mentions has been considered and rejected – again and again – by the city’s environmentally aware, and pro-housing, Planning Commission and staff. They refused his unworkable pet project for very good reasons: beneath some nice-sounding rhetoric, Richard’s “Ecocity” proposals are as bizarre and inappropriate as his attack-dog style. Richard’s notions would reduce – not increase – Berkeley’s supply of affordable housing, by undercutting current affordable-housing incentives. They would worsen – not improve – the city’s real environmental impacts. They would diminish the city’s “livability,” by toppling the current protections for views and solar access that make high density bearable. And they have no real voter support.

Richard’s whining that anyone “wants to keep people out of town” is absurd, false, and comes from the city’s least appropriate source. Richard’s past writings indicate that he favors throwing about 70 percent of Berkeley residents out of their homes, to make way for “a return to agriculture and nature.”

Does any sane person think demolishing 70 percent of our housing stock would promote affordability? Consider the costs of building replacement housing at current prices.

Does any sane person think massive demolition would be good for the local environment? Consider the former World Trade Center’s continuing “fallout” of airborne asbestos and other contaminants.

To our knowledge, Richard’s favorite developer, Patrick Kennedy, has never built a single affordable housing unit beyond the bare minimum required to win his height bonuses. He has reportedly even disputed the city law that requires new buildings to include room for moderate-income people. Although Richard crows about the Bay view he enjoys from his subsidized nest up near the 11th floor of “The World’s Tallest Seven-Story Building,” he would pull up the ladder and deny the benefits of affordability and views to others.

By contrast, the publicly written General Plan appropriately makes affordable (not premium-priced) housing its first housing priority.

We think even Richard would acknowledge this if he’d bothered to read the plan. He’s evidently been too busy collecting his trumpeted “endorsements.” These typically come from one- or two-person “letterhead organizations” (much like Richard’s own “Ecocity Builders”), with a handful from small endorsement committees of larger groups.

Endorsers large and small are now distancing themselves from Richard – praising his “spirit” but disavowing his “specifics” – as they learn his valid points were in the General Plan all along.

To again call Richard’s bluff: Let’s “get beyond government by...appeasing the badgerers.” The General Plan vote will be a test not for any one councilmember, but for the whole City Council. Rejecting Richard’s silliest suggestions would decisively repudiate the city’s old “Berzerkeley” stereotype, and demonstrate that Berkeley does not cave in to the most strident badgerer.

Passing the publicly written General Plan – unencumbered – would honor the staff and community members who did their homework, produced rational and productive results, and respectfully accommodated their neighbors’ concerns.

Jolyn Warford, Regional Marketing Coordinator for Whole Foods, said she provided the Planet with inaccurate information for its Dec. 5 story, “Protesters say hemp is food not drugs.” Warford said that, contrary to her previous statements, Whole Foods will continue to stock hemp food despite a new federal regulation banning the products. She said Whole Foods does not believe hemp food contains enough THC, the psychoactive chemical in marijuana, to justify the ban.

Your story of Dec. 5 on hempseed foods did the industry and your readers a great disservice. Had you taken the time to talk to an actual hempseed importer, you would have learned that we already comply with DEA’s Interim Rule!

Many of us have had zero THC hempseed foods for years. Therefore, the Interim Rule should have no effect on the vast majority of hempseed foods, including those of HempNut, Inc. (www.thehempnut.com), and its customers Nature’s Path, French Meadow Bakery, and Alpsnack.

DEA’s Rule is a clarification of the basis under which all responsible hempseed importers have already been operating under for quite some time. However, that simple fact has been lost on those who do not import hempseed and thus have no burden of compliance, but are attempting to manipulate the meaning of the Rule for political reasons.

The unfortunate result of all this “DEA bans hemp food” hype, is that it succeeds where even the DEA never could: make the demand for hemp foods dwindle, and scare away the trade upon which we depend to sell our foods. For more information I suggest the Hemp Food Association website: www.HempFood.com.

Citing a “conflict of interest,” the federal court judge presiding over the trial of Vijay and Prasad Lakireddy, sons of jailed Berkeley landlord Lakireddy Bali Reddy, has handed the case to a colleague.

Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong signed an order recusing herself from the Lakireddy case on Monday.

Judge Claudia Wilken will preside over the trial of the brothers, who stand accused of conspiracy to bring aliens into the United States illegally, importing aliens for immoral purposes and traveling to engage in a sexual act with a juvenile.

The dates of all future hearings in the case have been canceled. Wilken will reassign new dates during the coming weeks.

In her order, Brown Armstrong gave no explanation of the “conflict of interest,” leaving observers puzzled about what that conflict may be.

Lucas Guttentag, an ACLU lawyer representing several of the victims in the case, said on Thursday that Brown Armstrong’s reticence on the subject was not unusual.

“She wasn’t required to give any more information than she did in the order,” he said.

SAN FRANCISCO — Scientists are uncertain how much of the carbon dioxide given off naturally each year within the North American ecosystem is reabsorbed by that system, complicating calculations of the net effect of human activities on emissions of the greenhouse gas.

The calculation is important because it establishes a baseline to gauge incremental sources of carbon dioxide — namely that produced by the burning of fossil fuels, scientists said Thursday at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

Stating outright whether North America is a source or sink is currently “problematic,” said Pieter Tans, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist.

“The evidence is not strong enough,” Tans said.

Should scientists determine that the United States absorbs more carbon dioxide than is naturally emitted within its borders, it could subtract that from the total amount that escapes to the atmosphere from its smokestacks and tailpipes, said Christopher Potter, a scientist with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Ames Research Center.

“It’s very important we try to pin this down and know its variability,” Potter said.

Carbon dioxide is the main culprit behind the rise in global temperatures that is widely accepted by scientists, Establishing how much individual nations emit is a thorny issue.

Last month, negotiators from 165 countries agreed on rules for implementing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which calls on about 40 industrialized nations to limit carbon dioxide emissions or cut them to below 1990 levels. The United States has rejected the accord.

Together, the U.S. and Canada emit about 1.7 billion tons of carbon each year, mainly as carbon dioxide. The amount is huge but still a fraction of the estimated 140 billion tons of carbon that cycles through the atmosphere, land and oceans during the same period.

Of the total, scientists are unsure how much is taken up within the two nations’ forests, farms and wetlands. Year-to-year variations in temperature and rainfall can skew the numbers significantly.

Estimates derived from NASA satellite measurement of plant growth across the United States and Canada suggest that the region absorbs anywhere from one-fourth to one-third more carbon than it emits. In short, that means the amount taken up by plant growth exceeds that rereleased to the atmosphere through rot and fire.

Jing Chen of the University of Toronto said warmer and wetter weather — possibly due to global warming — has extended the growing season by as much as a week over the last century. That increased growth could translate into more carbon dioxide being removed from the atmosphere, he said.

“It is difficult to have high confidence in these calculations,” Chen said.

OAKLAND — The Association of Bay Area Governments on Thursday announced Projections 2002, a forecast that details expected economic and demographic trends in the Bay Area.

The forecast shows new patterns in population, employment, labor force, income, and households in the Bay Area for the next 25 years, especially after the dot-com economy plummeted.

The new forecast predicts recovery from the Bay Area recession will begin during the second half of 2002, with jobs and population growing at a pace of one to two percent per year.

Data shows that the area’s economy will continue to be driven by high technology, biomedical research and development, the finance sector, tourism, retail goods and services, and government.

Currently the Bay Area’s population is at 6.8 million and projected to grow to 7.5 million in 2010 and 8.2 million in 2025.

Residents concerned about the economy

SAN FRANCISCO — The Bay Area Poll 2001 showed that this year, more residents are concerned about the regional economy than last year, but respondents still cite transportation as the biggest regional problem.

From a total of 600 surveyed residents, 27 percent ranked the economy as the biggest regional problem compared to only 4 percent in 2000. But more expect economic conditions to get better in the coming 12 months than to worsen. Thirty-eight percent expected improvement, 25 percent saw the economy staying the same, while 32 percent, predicted a worsening economic scenario for the region.

Transportation still remains the biggest problem facing the region, according to 32 percent of residents. But the survey registered a 25 percent drop in the number of residents putting transportation at the top of the list.

Housing, as the top problem facing the Bay Area, dropped from second place 24 percent in 2000 to third place this year, earning 14 percent of the residents’ ire.

The poll, conducted by the Field Research Corporation and commissioned by the Bay Area Council, surveyed residents from the nine Bay Area counties and has a sampling error of plus or minus 4 percent.

School bus driver to undergo evaluations

SANTA CLARA — A judge on Wednesday ordered Cathline Repunte, the San Jose school bus driver accused of killing a co-worker and injuring three others, to undergo evaluations by court-appointed doctors to determine whether she is competent to stand trial.

Police say more than a dozen witnesses at Laidlaw Transit watched in terror as Cathline Repunte allegedly opened fire early on the morning of April 23.

While family members claim Repunte has a history of mental problems, prosecutors have said there is no evidence of that.

SAN FRANCISCO — NASA will cease communicating with its Deep Space 1 spacecraft on Tuesday, ending a three-year mission capped in September when the probe imaged what may be the darkest object in the solar system.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration will stop sending the robotic probe commands next week and let it drift, leaving it to silently orbit the sun, Robert Nelson, the mission’s project scientist, said Thursday.

Members of the $164 million mission, based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, had hoped to extend the life of the spacecraft into next year and send it flying past an asteroid known as 1999 KK1 to capture images of the space rock at close range. The feat would have cost NASA several million dollars.

“We did not get an enthusiastic response from NASA headquarters,” Nelson said.

During its short lifetime, Deep Space 1 successfully flew past two other solar system objects, the asteroid Braille in 1999 and, more recently, the comet Borrelly on Sept. 22.

On Thursday, scientists gave reporters at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco an update on what they learned from the Borrelly encounter, which marked only the second time a spacecraft was able to photograph the dark nucleus of a comet.

During the flyby, the spacecraft flew within 1,360 miles of Borrelly, snapping images of the shoe-shaped comet, mapping its topography and making other scientific measurements.

The images showed the surface of Borrelly is nearly as dark as the almost pure carbon used as toner in photocopiers, Nelson said. On average, the surface absorbs as much as 97 percent of the sunlight that fall onto it.

The spacecraft’s cameras also captured bright jets of dust and gas shooting in tight columns from the comet.

“They cross each other like a bunch of searchlights coming off a city at night,” said Larry Soderblom of the U.S. Geological Survey and head of the mission’s imaging team.

Comets grow active when their orbits take them on close approaches toward the sun, which can bake them with its warming rays. Scientists said they were able to measure temperatures as high as 162 degrees Fahrenheit on the surface of Borrelly.

That heat boils off the frozen mix of water and dust that make up the interior of comets, sending it spewing into space. That material represents the frozen remnants of the stuff from which our solar system coalesced some 4.5 billion years ago.

Soderblom called that mix the “most primitive materials from which we, the solar system and life arose.”

Although cometary nuclei are typically jet black, the luminous glow of the cloud of gas and dust that envelops the frozen snow balls can be among the brightest objects visible in the night sky.

“It is one of the great and fun curiosities of science,” Nelson said.

Scientists are still unsure if Borrelly is the absolute darkest known object in the solar system. The only known rival is Iapetus, one of the moons of Saturn.

NASA designed Deep Space 1 to test a dozen innovative technologies in space. Mission members consider its afterlife as a science mission as a bonus.

“While going through the checkpoints, airport personnel found what appeared to be marijuana,” he said.

Police cited Giambi, who was traveling to Phoenix, with a misdemeanor for possession of a controlled substance.

He was allowed to continue on to his flight, said airport unit Lt. Ted Moody.

“We didn’t have him long. We impounded the marijuana, wrote the citation and sent him on his way,” Moody told the Las Vegas Sun. “He got a ticket just like anyone else would.”

A McCarran spokeswoman confirmed Thursday that Giambi was cited while attempting to pass through a security checkpoint, but said the incident was turned over to police.

A January court date was set for the 27-year-old slugger who owns a home in Henderson.

A spokesman for the Oakland Athletics could not be immediately reached for comment and Giambi was unavailable.

Giambi signed on with the Athletics in spring 2000.

He played for Oakland with his older brother, Jason Giambi, who signed a $120 million, seven-year contract with the New York Yankees on Thursday.

Jeremy Giambi made his big-league debut with the Kansas City Royals in 1998.

This past season, he played first base, outfield and designated hitter for Oakland as he hit .283, with 12 home runs and 57 RBI, in 124 games.

A new Nevada law that went into effect Oct. 1 eased penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana.

Formerly a felony, possession of an ounce or less of marijuana is a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum $600 fine for a first offense — instead of the old felony provisions of up to four years in prison.

SACRAMENTO — The California Department of Corrections said Thursday it will pay for the legal defense of three current correctional officers and one former employee accused in a pending federal civil rights lawsuit.

The guards are accused of setting up the rape of inmate Eddie Dillard by leaving him in the cell of a known sexual predator, Wayne Robertson.

The decision means the state would pay any compensatory damages from the federal suit, said Dillard’s attorney, Robert L. Bastian Jr., though the four may be personally liable for any punitive damages.

The agreement comes after a state court in Hanford ruled the department is legally required to defend the Corcoran State Prison guards. The state is dropping its appeal, which had been set for a hearing later this month.

The 118-pound Dillard alleges he was repeatedly raped over two days in March 1993 by Robertson, a 6-foot-3, 230-pound convicted murderer known as the “Booty Bandit.”

However, a Kings County Superior Court jury acquitted four guards in 1999 of aiding and abetting sodomy in concert.

Three of the four guards – Robert Allan Decker, Joe Sanchez and Anthony J. Sylva – and a fourth former employee, Kathy Horton-Plant, are named in the federal civil rights lawsuit awaiting a January 8 hearing in U.S. District Court in Fresno.

ATLANTA — Smoking is more common in the Midwest and South than other parts of the nation, while Orange County has the lowest rate in the country, the government said Thursday in its first city-by-city study of tobacco use.

Smoking rates are lower in the Northeast and West, where clean indoor-air laws are stronger and cigarette taxes in many states are higher, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Toledo, Ohio, had the highest rate of any metropolitan area in the country, with more than 31 percent of its residents reporting they were smokers. Orange County had the lowest rate — just 13 percent.

The study examined 99 cities last year, asking respondents in a random telephone survey whether they smoked at least on some days and whether they had smoked more than 100 cigarettes. Those who answered yes to both were labeled smokers.

Federal health officials hope breaking down the statistics to individual cities will help pinpoint areas where anti-tobacco programs need to be stronger, said Dr. Terry Pechacek of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health.

Eventually, the government hopes to examine the smoking data alongside Census figures to highlight cultural variations in cities that might be leading more people to smoke.

“We think we’ll find out a lot more about the variability,” Pechacek said. “This is serving as a baseline to many of these local areas, as they start doing more on tobacco control.”

In the Midwest, cities reported a median smoking rate of 23.7 percent, with the South close behind at 23.2. The figure was lowest in the West at 20.6, with the Northeast at 20.8 percent.

Smoking rates nationwide have remained mostly stagnant since the mid-1990s, with just under one-fourth of the population saying they smoke cigarettes.

In a separate report, CDC released state-by-state smoking data. Kentucky led the nation with 30.5 percent of its population smoking, and Utah had the lowest rate, just 12.9 percent.

Those figures do not surprise health officials. Kentucky, a major tobacco producer, topped the list from 1995 to 1999 and was briefly unseated last year by Nevada, with its 24-hour, smoke-friendly casinos and bars.

Utah, where the Mormon Church’s opposition to smoking has been credited with keeping rates low, was also at the bottom of the list last year.

The government characterizes tobacco use as the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.

LOS ANGELES — The former business partner of racing legend Mickey Thompson was arrested Thursday for investigation of murder in the 1988 slaying of Thompson and his wife.

Michael Frank Goodwin was taken into custody at his Dana Point home in Orange County shortly after 3:30 p.m. and booked at the Orange County Jail, said Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Jim Hellmold.

He was booked on two counts of murder, one count of conspiracy and three special circumstances, which were lying in wait, murder for financial gain and multiple murder, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement. Prosecutors said they will decide later whether to seek the death penalty.

Goodwin, who was being held without bail, was scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Orange County.

Goodwin, 56, has long been a suspect in the shooting deaths of Thompson, 59, and his wife, Trudy, 41 outside their suburban Los Angeles mansion in 1988. Investigators suspect a broken partnership that led to Goodwin filing for bankruptcy prompted the killings.

Goodwin has repeatedly maintained his innocence, saying he has been the target of overzealous prosecutors and Thompson’s sister, who is a prominent victims’ rights advocate.

Thompson became known as the “Speed King” during the 1950s when he set the first of his nearly 500 auto speed and endurance records. In 1960, he became the first person to travel more than 400 mph on land.

He was also a drag racing innovator, building and driving the sport’s first “slingshot” dragster.

Goodwin, once known as the “Father of Supercross” for his 1980s dirt bike competitions, had a business partnership with Thompson that ended in a bitter breakup.

The split resulted in Thompson winning a $514,000 judgment that helped force Goodwin into bankruptcy.

Thompson and his wife were shot to death in the driveway of their palatial home in a gated community in Bradbury, about 15 miles east of Los Angeles, on March 16, 1988.

Witnesses said they saw two men fleeing the area on bicycles. Authorities have said Thompson’s wife was shot in front of him as he pleaded for the killers not to harm her.

Authorities don’t believe Goodwin actually killed the Thompsons but aided two other men who did. According to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, Goodwin is suspected of providing a stun gun to the killers, who have never been captured.

As investigators eliminated possible motives, they began focusing on the broken business relationship between Goodwin and Thompson.

Goodwin refused to submit to police questioning, however, and the case languished for years. The investigation reintensified in recent months after the district attorney convened a grand jury.

Goodwin has conceded that bad feelings existed between him and Thompson but he insists they settled things in the weeks before Thompson’s murder.

“They will say and do anything to get me,” he told The Associated Press earlier this year. “I believe they will probably indict me. But they are never going to prove it. I didn’t do it.”

His lawyer said Thursday’s arrest was no surprise.

“We’ve been expecting it and planned for it,” attorney Jeff Benice said.

“I don’t think anybody, including Mr. Goodwin could put into words the kind of depressing, demeaning conduct and state of mind he’s been subjected to by authorities,” Benice added. “His reputation has been destroyed.”

Goodwin has said scrutiny of him as a suspect was pushed by Thompson’s sister, Collene Campbell, who has offered a $1 million reward for information leading to the killers’ conviction.

Campbell issued a statement Thursday night saying her family was “relieved that finally we are headed toward justice.”

“Just before he was murdered, my brother, Mickey, told me and other credible friends, that he feared for Trudy’s life, as well as his own, at the hands of Mike Goodwin,” she said.

“For 5,011 days, that’s 13 years and nine months, I have prayed that justice would be served,” Campbell said. “An arrest and conviction won’t bring Mickey and Trudy back, but it will make a lot of us feel better.”

NEW YORK — It’s a chilly winter night and the gang’s all here. Mom and dad, teens and toddlers, Babar, the Nutcracker and Curious George are snuggled together, enjoying a good story.

This could be a scene from 1951 or 2001 since the fictional characters have remained favorites with adults and kids all these years.

They’ve lasted because they’re interesting and compelling and they go through rites of passage that children of any generation can relate to.

“I’m so in love with the little girl in this story,” says Maurice Sendak, who illustrated a version of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s “Nutcracker” in 1984. “Her inner life is so dynamic and full of curiosity — and those are the kids I like in real life.”

The Sendak book, published by Crown and out of print for a number of years, is back in stores. Hoffmann originally penned the fairy tale about a girl on the threshold of womanhood in the 19th century.

Sendak continues: “Kids see right through dumbed-down books. Parents buy into them and grandparents buy into this notion of what kids ‘should’ read ... but the luckiest children are those who discover a great story, like the ‘Nutcracker,’ and not have it forced on them.”

The adventure, excitement and emotion of growing up is always modern, says Sendak, but the “Nutcracker,” when kept true to Hoffman’s vision, is quirky and a little scary, which keeps children coming back for more.

It’s a tale often shortened for “children’s” versions and theatrical performances but, given the chance, Sendak says young readers remain engrossed in the full story.

“I and they (children) can appreciate and love simple books with depth. That’s very different than ‘dumbed down.”’

Laurent de Brunhoff picked up where his father Jean left off when he died in 1937: writing and illustrating Babar books. His father insisted — and Laurent de Brunhoff has continued — to write “good” books that aren’t targeted to a specific audience.

The formula seems to work. Babar is celebrating his 70th birthday, with Laurent doing 30 books in addition to his father’s seven.

(He’s also starred in movies and TV shows.)

“When I do a book, I never say ‘This is for children so I should do this and that for them.’ I’m doing it for me. I’m living out my childhood fantasies. But little kids today happen to have the same needs and have the same fun as little kids in the 1930s,” de Brunhoff explains.

And de Brunhoff says adults enjoy the stories, including the most recent “Babar and the Succotash Bird” (Harry N. Abrams), because they have fond memories of the elephant from their own childhood but they also have a newfound appreciation for the poetic style of the books.

“Pat the Bunny” author Dorothy Kunhardt’s daughter Edith also has furthered the original book, making it a series, including the newest titles “Pat the Birthday Bunny” and “Tickle the Pig.” But a spokeswoman for Random House Children’s Books says that throughout its many printings, “Pat the Bunny” hasn’t undergone any significant changes since it was published in 1940.

The familiar smell of the scratch-and-sniff flowers is inviting to youngsters and pleasantly nostalgic to parents.

Margaret and H.A. Rey spent at least a year on each Curious George book and the effort shows, says Maire Gorman, vice president of special markets for Houghton Mifflin Publishers. The couple didn’t have children of their own so they understood the need to really engage parents and grandparents in the now-60-year-old monkey’s adventures, she observes.

The Reys wrote seven books as a couple between 1941 and 1966. Margaret then did a Curious George filmstrip series in the 1970s that has been turned into a “new adventure” series of books.

Gorman attributes their enduring popularity to George’s overwhelming desire to experience life. “Everyone has had times when their curiosity got them into situations they didn’t anticipate,” she says.

Luckily for George, and his fans, there is always a comforting resolution.

The best holiday tales are wrapped together in “A Christmas Treasury: Very Merry Stories and Poems” (HarperCollins, $16.95, all ages), a beautiful gift from illustrator Kevin Hawkes.

The book includes a tasty morsel from “Wind in the Willows” as old pals Mole and Rat enjoy a holiday meal with their new friends. In “Christmas at the Hollow Tree Inn,” Mr. Dog, posing as Santa Claus, shares his generous spirit with his friends and learns about the gift of giving.

“He found some long wool out in Mr. Man’s barn for his white whiskers, and he put some that wasn’t so long on the edges of his overcoat and boot tops and around an old hat he had. Then he borrowed a big sack he found out there and fixed it up to swing over his back, just as he had seen Santa Claus do in the pictures.”

Hawkes’ drawings, mostly of happy Christmas Eve preparations, complement each story and all seem to bask in the same warm glow.

Inspired by “The Friendly Beasts”, a medieval song, Helen Ward’s “The Animals’ Christmas Carol” (Milbrook Press, $17.95, ages 4-8) gives voice to the animals in the Nativity story. The animals, including a bear and lion, are drawn at a kid’s eye level (in camel brown, ram black, rooster reds and peacock teal inks) so the readers see things from their own perspective.

In the Christmas spirit, the animals cooperate to guard the sleeping baby. Dog brings the sheep. Woodworm spares the stable its wormy holes. Moth avoids the candle’s flame to keep it steady, and mongoose keeps poisonous snakes away.

”‘We,’ said the camels from Eastern lands, ‘we carried three men over desert sands to place their gifts in your tiny hands. We,’ said the camels from Eastern lands.”

The stenciled pages and traditional-style, brightly colored illustrations complement the text about a peasant woman who spends her life “preparing” — for what, no one knows.

While the villagers are excited about a star in the night sky, she mutters: “All this fuss for a star! ... I don’t even have time to look. I’m so behind, I must work all night!”

But a knock at her door reveals three kings in need of a place to rest on their journey to see a newborn king. When the kings leave, they invite Baboushka to go along. “This new king could be your king, too.”

Baboushka says she will follow “tomorrow.” But when she finally sets out, she can’t find the kings or the child they were so eager to see. As she continues to search for them, the woman leaves gifts at the homes of sleeping children.

It isn’t only the lights that make a Christmas tree shine.

In “Cobweb Christmas: The Tradition of Tinsel” (HarperCollins $15.95, ages 4-8) by Shirley Climo and illustrated by Jane Manning, Tante (aunt in German) has made it a tradition to decorate the most beautiful tree in the village and gives the most wonderful gifts to all. But no one can fulfill her holiday dream: to experience a little Christmas magic.

Leave it to Kriss Kringle and a clan of curious spiders to weave glittering webs that light up the holiday for Tante.

Rumor has it that tinsel has been a tree-trimming tradition ever since!

Speirs uses light, illuminated text, gold inks and color to create a rich tapestry for the warm story of a gardener’s son who has an unusual gift to give a newborn king.

“A boy helped his father tend the gardens of three exceedingly learned men, Balthazar, Caspar and Melchior.”

Knowing the bright star in the sky signaled the birth of a new king, these men set off on their search. The boy is told he must stay behind since he has no worthy gift, but he follows the procession in the shadows.

“And, so they journeyed on. ... The wise men with their richly laden camels, the nomads with their bright woven rugs, the herdsmen with their goats, the olive growers with their jars of oil, the farmers with their loaves of bread and the beekeepers with their combs of sweetest honey.”

The gardener’s son, unnoticed in the crowd, then steps forward to offer his gift, decorated with green and purple olives, threads from the rugs and a star of golden beeswax.

———

The night of the play arrives and when there is no star in the sky or on the tree, Porcupine finds his moment to shine in “Little Porcupine’s Christmas” (HarperCollins, $9.95, ages 3-6) by Joseph Slate and illustrated by Felicia Bond.

———

Santa Claus has plenty of help preparing for his big night in “Santa’s Workshop” (Sterling, $12.95, ages 4-8), illustrated by Alastair Graham. The secrets hidden behind a satisfying number of flaps are sure to delight children.

———

Laura and Mary worry that Santa Claus will not find them since the creek is so swollen with rain, in “Santa Comes to Little House” (HarperCollins, $15.95, ages 4-8).

This chapter from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House on the Prairie” is filled with affectionate illustrations by Renee Graef.

Of course, Ma and Pa wouldn’t let their girls go without Christmas, even if it turns out to be a little different from the holiday they all were expecting.

Other Christmas books

—“Santa’s Toys” (Sterling, $12.95, ages 3-6) by Sam Williams and Tim Gill finds Santa Claus under the tree, unable to resist looking inside a dollhouse or playing with a toy train that rolls across the page of this pull-the-tab book. Planes fly above and soldiers march off alphabet blocks in a book that captures the sheer joy of Christmas toys.

—“A Shepherd’s Gift” (HarperCollins, $15.95, ages 4-9) by Mary Calhoun and illustrated by Raul Colon is a sweetly told Christmas tale. Its unusual and textured illustrations and gentle text tell about a simple shepherd boy who is searching for his lost lamb when he stumbles upon a newborn child in a hillside stable.

—“The Christmas Story” (DK, $7.95, baby to preschool) by Deborah Chancellor and illustrated by Julie Downing, is an easy-to-read, glowingly illustrated story of the birth of Jesus that makes a good introduction for toddlers.

—“Christmas Magic” (Dutton, $15.99, baby to preschool) by Michael Garland is a magical, mystical Christmas Eve in brilliant color for a snowman, snowwoman and Emily.

—“Christmas Is Coming!” (Chronicle, $6.95, baby to preschool) by Claire Masurel and illustrated by Marie H. Henry captures a little girl’s — and her toys’ — anticipation of the big day. After Juliette is asleep, the curious toys go downstairs for another peek at the Christmas tree and find more than they expected.

—“The Christmas Promise” (Blue Sky-Scholastic, $15.95, ages 4 and older) by Susan Bartoletti and illustrated by David Christiana captures the emotion and the small glimmer of hope of a Depression-era Christmas. Retro-style illustrations in black and white with touches of color capture both the hardship and happiness shared by a father and daughter.

Kiss someone under the mistletoe and you’re doing what the Druids did centuries ago. That’s all that remains from the many mistletoe legends of European peoples of centuries ago.

A sprig of mistletoe wasn’t always so innocent. Mistletoe was regarded by the ancients as having supernatural powers, sometimes good and sometimes evil. Two thousand years ago, mistletoe was known by some as a beneficial medicinal herb. In Scandinavian mythology, however, mistletoe was responsible for the destruction of the sun god Baldur the Beautiful.

Mistletoe is only a small wisp of a plant, so why would the ancients credit it with such awesome powers as healing or overpowering gods? The reason is because mistletoes are capable of killing large trees, even the massive oaks venerated by the Druids.

Mistletoes are parasitic plants. They nestle into the branches of host trees, then penetrate the bark to sap nutrients and water. This weakens and, in some cases, kills the tree. As the ancients gazed up into tree branches, they recognized that the tufts of mistletoe, though intimately associated with the tree, were nonetheless different from the rest of the tree. Our word “mistletoe” is a derivation of the Saxon word “mistl-tan,” meaning “different twig.”

European legends were based on their native mistletoe, known as true mistletoe. As the Americas were colonized, European customs were carried across the Atlantic and applied to one of the native mistletoes, called Christmas mistletoe or true American mistletoe. Christmas mistletoe is relatively rare, occurring in isolated pockets south of New Jersey, and then west to New Mexico. It lives on junipers and deciduous trees, but usually is not life-threatening to the host tree. In fact, Christmas mistletoe could be considered an agricultural crop, as it supports a Christmastime industry.

Not all native American mistletoes are innocuous. Another species, dwarf mistletoe, can devastate whole stands of forest trees.

Notice the white berries of mistletoe. Within the berries are sticky seeds, just right for sticking to the bark of a tree. Birds and other animals carry the seeds from tree to tree. In the case of dwarf mistletoe, the ripe seeds are shot out of the berries, often as far as 50 feet.

Where mistletoe is “cultivated,” gardeners take the sticky seeds and sow them in the bark of a suitable host tree. Most gardeners prefer to get their mistletoe from the florist, using it as a plant for the doorway, not the garden.

HONOLULU — Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are such a tiny minority in the United States that only seven states count them as more than one-tenth of a percent of the population, according to a 2000 census report released Thursday.

Not surprisingly, more than half of them live in Hawaii and California, and nearly three-fourths are concentrated in the West.

Of the 281.4 million people in the United States, 398,835 respondents in the 2000 census checked off Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.

A total of 874,414 checked that category in combination of one or more other races, the report said. When taking another race into account, twice as many states — a total of 14 — could count those as more than one-tenth of a percent of the population.

Nationally, more people identified themselves as Native Hawaiian, 401,162, than any other Pacific Islander group, followed by Samoan, 133,281, and Guamanian or Chamorro, 92,611.

In Hawaii, where whites account for less than a quarter of the population, more than one in five identified themselves as multiracial, the highest percentage of any state.

Of the 1.2 million people in Hawaii, 282,667 identified themselves as Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders alone or in combination with another race, or 23.3 percent of the state population, by far the highest in the nation.

Honolulu has the most Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders with 25,457, or 6.8 percent of the population of 371,657. New York had the second largest population of Pacific Islanders who counted themselves as more than one race, 19,203, but that accounted for just two-tenths of 1 percent of the city’s 8 million people.

LAS VEGAS — California must meet a commitment to reduce its dependence on Colorado River water over the next 15 years, a federal Interior Department official warned Thursday.

“If California is not successful, the results could be grave for California,” said Bennett Raley, the assistant interior secretary who handles water issues.

Dennis Underwood, vice president of Colorado River Resources for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, said he was confident the goals will be met through conservation and agreements to obtain water from other sources.

The urban water district serves 17 million people from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border, but has to yield Colorado River water rights to agricultural users in three other districts — the Imperial Irrigation District, Coachella Valley Water District and the San Diego County Water Authority.

“We’re the lower priority, so we’re the ones who would be hit the hardest,” Underwood said.

Raley, speaking to an annual Colorado River Water Users Association conference, said several more dry years like 2001 could limit other states’ ability to send surplus water to California.

He acknowledged that a cut in water to Southern California would have a ripple effect. He predicted battles about agricultural water use and the possibility of a north-south water war in the state.

“In contrast,” Raley said, “we have so much to gain from successes.”

Raley said he was Interior Secretary Gale Norton’s emissary to complete an agreement that former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt negotiated last year among California and the six other Colorado River Basin states — Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada.

It is due to be completed by December 2002.

Dubbed the ”4.4 Plan,” it lets California receive surplus Colorado River water that would otherwise go to the other states, in return for California’s pledge to reduce reliance on the river within 15 years.

California is entitled to 4.4 million acre feet of water a year under the 1928 Boulder Canyon Project Act. That agreement was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1964. Nevada is allotted 300,000 acre feet. Arizona gets 2.8 million acre feet.

An acre foot of water is about 326,000 gallons, or roughly the amount needed for an average family of five for one year.

In recent years, California’s annual draw has grown to as much as 800,000 acre feet above its allotment.

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. — With a heavy snow in the mountains, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has decided to release a small amount of irrigation water to some farmers who typically leave their fields flooded in the winter.

Water began flowing to the Klamath Drainage District on Wednesday, an area that includes mostly grain farms about 15 miles south of Klamath Falls. The district makes up about 10 percent of the entire Klamath Reclamation Project.

Reclamation officials said they can drain some water from the Klamath River and still conserve enough water in Upper Klamath Lake to keep the lake at the minimum level required by Jan. 1.

The Bureau of Reclamation is required to raise the lake level to 4,140 feet above sea level by that date, while maintaining a flow of 1,300 cubic feet per second in the Klamath River at Iron Gate Dam in California’s Siskiyou County.

The river flows are designed to protect threatened coho salmon, while the lake level protects endangered sucker fish.

About 200 cubic feet of water per second began flowing from the Klamath River through the North Canal near Midland, Bryant said. About 150 cubic feet per second will go to fields in the Klamath Drainage District, while 50 cubic feet per second will go to the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge.

Flooding of grain fields will provide a wintertime habitat for migratory waterfowl and bald eagles, said Jim Bryant, chief of land and water operations for the Klamath Reclamation Project.

Farmers in the Lower Klamath Lake area typically flood their fields in the winter and then draw the water off in the spring before they plant grain.

The water content of the snowpack in the Upper Klamath Basin was 169 percent of average on Wednesday, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

ELKO, Nev. — The mother of a teen-ager who was slain by a Bureau of Indian Affairs police officer said the officer shot her unarmed son in the back after a struggle at their home on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation.

Jake Thomas, 19, a member of the Duck Valley Reservation Tribe, was shot twice in the upper torso early Sunday by a BIA agent responding to a domestic dispute, BIA officials said.

Thomas was transported to the Owyhee Community Health Facility, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The BIA has refused further comment pending the outcome of an investigation. The FBI also is investigating.

Thomas’ mother, Brenda Scissons, 42, Duck Valley, said she was the one who called police to the house about 4 a.m. because her son had been drinking whiskey and had a tendency to become violent when he was drunk.

“I only wanted them to put him in the drunk tank until he sobered up. I didn’t think he would be killed,” she told the Elko Daily Free Press.

“People in the community have told me that the BIA police are saying the officer had multiple stab wounds and that my son was shot from the front,” she said.

But Scissons said it’s not true. She said her son was unarmed. She said he was wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt and could not have concealed a weapon. She said the officer hit him in the head with his flashlight and they struggled before he was shot.

“My son never hit him with his fist or anything. They hit the rocking chair and fell to the floor and the officer tried to get his cuffs out and dropped them on the floor,” she said.

Scissons said her son has been arrested by BIA police a few years ago after he struggled with an officer.

“They know he couldn’t stand to be restrained or in handcuffs,” she said.

She estimated they struggled for about 10 minutes and both were on their knees when she “got Jake’s attention and I tried to get him to stop fighting.

“He tried to get up himself and when he was getting up ... the officer told him to calm down.”

At that point, she said, the officer pulled his gun out of his holster and shot Thomas in the back while he was still on his knees and looking at her.

The BIA has not identified the officer, who is on a paid leave of absence pending the investigation. But Larry Berger, a New York attorney representing the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, identified the officer as Patrick Pipe.

“It is much too early to give a substantive comment about these events,” Berger said.

Officials at the Boise St. Alphonsus Hospital confirmed that Pipe was treated and released Sunday, the day of the shooting.

Scissons said her 17-year-old daughter charged the officer and he shot her with mace on the porch. She said she heard her son gurgling blood and she turned him on his side, then went outside.

“I told the officer to call the ambulance because I thought Jake was dying,” she said. “He told me to go back inside or he would shoot me.”

Later, she said the officer handcuffed her and told her she was under arrest. She said she was freed after an ambulance left with her son.

Richard Armstrong, law enforcement commander for the BIA’s district office in Phoenix, said in a news release Monday that the officer confronted Thomas and arrested him.

“The suspect resisted being placed under arrest and a physical fight ensued, which resulted in the police officer being assaulted, sustaining facial lacerations and bruises on his upper eyelid, jaw and head,” Armstrong said at the time.

“The suspect’s failure to cease his physical attack on the police officer resulted in the officer shooting the suspect twice,” he said.

Armstrong was out of the office and not available for comment Thursday, a BIA spokeswoman said.

BIA Criminal Investigator Marc Leber did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment Thursday. He told the Elko newspaper three separate and independent investigations are currently under way.

The first is administrative and is being conducted by BIA internal affairs to determine whether the officer acted within bureau policy.

The second is a criminal investigation, which Leber is handling.

Agents from the FBI’s office in Boise also are investigating, he said.

Leber said if the case goes to trial it will be held in Boise because the crime occurred on the Idaho side of the reservation.

WASHINGTON — The Agriculture Department cut the first checks Thursday to significantly boost payments to timber-dependent communities since Congress approved a new aid formula last year.

The department said the new system will provide a 98 percent increase in federal funding over last year to pay for roads, schools and other projects in counties that have national forests within their boundaries. The U.S. Forest Service is part of the Agriculture Department.

About $384 million will be sent out, and the department expects to provide an additional $1.1 billion over the next six years.

Because national forest lands aren’t subject to property taxes, counties have historically received 25 percent of the proceeds from federal timber sales in lieu of the missing taxes. However, since logging has declined sharply in the last decade, many counties have found themselves in a pinch.

At a press conference complete with a giant check, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and a handful of lawmakers applauded the new money as a way to help stabilize the income of rural counties.

“When timber sales began to decline, these dependent communities and school districts really became isolated, revenue-lost islands that had very little capacity to generate revenue on their own,” said Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, who helped craft the legislation.

Under the new formula, counties can ask for the average of their three highest federal payments between 1986 and 1999, or they can choose to continue receiving 25 percent of revenues from timber sales and a few other sources.

About 75 percent of more than 700 eligible counties decided to use the new formula and received more money.

Checks will go to 41 states and Puerto Rico. Among the largest are Oregon, which will receive $154 million; California, $65 million; Washington, about $44 million; and Idaho, nearly $23 million.

In Oregon, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden is unhappy with the Legislature and governor for deciding not to direct the federal education dollars to rural counties, choosing instead to spread the money around the entire state. Wyden is pushing for language in a spending bill that would require Oregon — and any other state that follows its lead — to use federal money for rural schools as he said Congress intended.

Wyden’s chief of staff, Josh Kardon, said the bill clearly stated the money was to supplement, not replace, existing rural school dollars. He said the state got it wrong.

“You hijack the money, dole it out, and then cry foul when Congress tries to return it to its rightful owner,” Kardon said.

Linda Ames, an Oregon state budget analyst, said by law each student in the state has consistently received the same amount of money, even as revenues dropped in rural counties from decreases in logging.

Ames said the legislature engaged in lengthy discussions about how to use the money created under the new formula and decided to continue to spend the same amount on each student.

Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., supports Wyden’s legislation, though Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., said he is reluctant to back the measure because it will create winners and losers, even in his district.

And “I am hesitant to judge the state legislature,” he added.

Wyden’s measure was attached to a spending bill in the Senate, but not the House. Negotiators are now working out the differences between the bills to submit for final congressional and White House approval.

RENO, Nev. — Executives behind the largest maker of cat litter in the world figured they’d found the perfect place for a West Coast mine and processing plant when they discovered premium clay deposits in a high-desert valley north of Reno.

Afterall, Nevada is the Silver State, the mining capital of the Comstock Lode, the third-biggest producer of gold in the world behind South Africa and Australia.

Oil-Dri Corp. executives had every reason to believe the fast-growing northern Nevada county of 300,000 would embrace their new mine — the 100 new jobs and estimated $12 million annual impact on a local casino-based economy that area business leaders are trying desperately to diversify.

Instead, they find themselves accused of “environmental racism” in a running battle with a coalition of conservationists, labor activists and the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, which borders the proposed site about 10 miles north of downtown.

The critics have staged rallies and picketed county meetings, purchased radio ads and even bought shares of Oil-Dri stock, enabling them to attend the company’s annual meeting in Chicago and protest the 300-acre project.

Oil-Dri countered by donating a ton of cat litter to a local animal shelter in an effort to reverse some of the ill will and demonstrate its desire to be a good neighbor.

“We were absolutely stunned at the reaction here,” admits Bob Vetere, Oil-Dri vice president and general counsel. “We’ve never had such opposition. Everybody loves to work for us.”

For Washoe County commissioners, who ultimately could determine the fate of the mine near Reno, it’s a classic struggle between the environment and the economy.

And it comes at a time local businesses are more susceptible than usual to concerns about an economic downturn.

Reno civic leaders and elected officials have been working for years to attract new industry and high-tech firms to ease the area’s heavy reliance on gambling revenues. The emergence of casinos on Indian reservations in neighboring California has underscored the urgency of the transition.

“This state and this community spends large amounts of money annually networking and trying to attract different industry to our area, so we don’t want to shoot ourselves in the foot,” Commissioner Joanne Bond said.

On the other hand, the mine has the potential to have a major physical impact on the area, from tapping precious water supplies to increasing truck traffic, dust and noise, she said.

“We are trying to balance that. It’s a tightrope between two poles with a fire pit below,” Bond said.

The Washoe County Planning Commission has scheduled a public hearing Tuesday on a proposed special use permit that would set out county conditions on the project.

Planning commission staff have recommended that the planners deny the permit. The staff concluded in a 95-page report that “while most direct environmental impacts from the proposed use can be properly mitigated, there are still a number of indirect impacts that cumulatively affect the surrounding residential communities.”

Opponents said that conclusion should help doom the project. But company officials said it represents only a staff recommendation, which the full planning commission could overturn.

The company also has indicated it would appeal any unfavorable action by the planning commission to the full county board of commissioners, which has the final say. Likewise, opponents have threatened legal action if necessary.

“Our tribal government will do whatever it takes to stop this mine,” said Arlen Melendez, chairman of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony.

“We’ll continue to fight this to the end, even if it means litigation,” he said. “This wouldn’t be built in an affluent neighborhood’s back yard.”

The county permit is key to the opponents’ efforts because the Bureau of Land Management already has said it has no authority to stop the operation on federal land, based on Oil-Dri’s legitimate claim to the minerals under the 1872 Mining Law.

“Since the BLM has let us down, we’re asserting ourselves to county officials as a last defense against the industrialization of our neighborhoods,” said Ben Felix of Citizens For Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods.

But Vetere is confident Oil-Dri’s plans will withstand any legal challenge.

“The bottom line is, we are in an area where our special use is permitted,” Vetere said. “When you couple that with the rights we have acquired under the 1872 Mining Law so as to be able to remove the minerals from the land, I don’t know that they could do that would stand up in court.”

Oil-Dri wants to build the plant to meet growing West Coast demand for the cat box products it manufacturers for Wal-Mart, Chlorox and others.

“There are 75 million cats in the world. Until they all get toilet trained, there is going to be a market for our product. It is a $1 billion industry,” Vetere said.

Backers say critics are exaggerating the impacts.

“The boundary of the colony is only a few hundred feet from the north area mine, but the distance from housing is more like a mile and a half. So we’re really not mining in anybody’s back yard,” said Jeff Codega, president of a Reno-based planning and design firm that has worked with Oil-Dri on the project.

Dave Howard, public policy director for the Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce, says it in economic terms.

“Northern Nevada is suffering like every other community is suffering from recession,” he said. “We see it as jobs, dollars, economic multipliers in the community.”

Ray Bacon, executive director of the Nevada Manufacturers Assocaition, said the products Oil-Dri makes help clean up fuel spills and other hazardous leaks.

“We’ve got environmental groups trying to stop a product that is as environmentally friendly and environmentally useful as there is out there,” Bacon said. “It may not be as glamorous as gold, but it is focused on pollution reduction.”

And it isn’t just any clay.

“The clay you get out of your backyard is worth $2 to $3 a ton. This clay is worth 100 times that because of its capability to absorb,” Vetere said.

Oil-Dri had sales topping $175 million last year and already operates clay mines in Mississippi, Georgia and Illinois. Company officials rented a suite at a Reno casino in October to make their case to local news reporters, complete with a 10-minute videotaped message from the company president as well as several workers at Oil-Dri manufacturing facilities in the South.

One after another, the workers described how well they had been treated and community leaders told of contributions that made school improvements and other civic construction possible in places like Ripley, Miss.

“The more information that gets disseminated and the more people are willing to look at the facts the more they realize we are really not the satanic, evil force that we are being made out to be,” Vetere said.

Melendez and Diana Crutcher-Smith were among tribal members who took Oil-Dri up on an offer to tour its facilities in Mississippi earlier this year.

“The whole town relies almost solely on Oil-Dri. People told me their dad and their granddad worked in the plant and someday their kid would work there too,” Crutcher-Smith said.

Melendez said it reminded him of coal mining country.

“People need jobs. Coal miners will accept black lung disease because they have to feed their families,” Melendez said. “I don’t know exactly what the standard of living is in Ripley, Mississippi, but it looked to me like they needed that plant there, so they are in a different situation.

“Nevada is the fastest growing state in the nation. I think we can be more selective of who we want to target. We’re not like Ripley, Mississippi, and other places where you have to take whatever comes along.”

SAN FRANCISCO — If your e-mail box is already besieged by unwanted salutations and solicitations, brace yourself — the onslaught is about to get worse.

Driven in part by anthrax scares, analysts say, e-mail volume will likely grow 45 percent next year, up from recent annual growth rates of 40 percent.

A lot of it is junk.

How to get out from under the electronic onslaught?

Most e-mail programs — Microsoft’s Outlook and Netscape’s Messenger among them — include custom filtering features that most people don’t use.

While that’s a start, smarter and heavier duty e-mail management tools are also available from a handful of technology start-ups.

Some are designed to ward off one of the Internet’s biggest nuisances — the slew of marketing pitches commonly known as “spam.” Others promise to help people focus on the e-mail they consider truly important.

“E-mail is the most popular application on the Internet, but it’s the No. 1 frustration as well,” said Tonny Yu, chief executive of Mailshell, which provides a service akin to Caller ID for e-mail.

Much of next year’s e-mail volume is expected to be generated by direct-marketing companies. And that means “even more time is going to be sucked away” from people’s lives dealing with spam, says Joyce Graff, an e-mail analyst for the Gartner Group technology research firm.

By some estimates, workers with e-mail accounts spend an estimated one hour per shift dealing with their incoming messages.

And that’s the market for Yu’s Santa Clara-based Mailshell, which lets users create different e-mail addresses tied to a single e-mail account.

For example, John Doe might use “amazon@jdoe.mailshell. com” when shopping at Amazon.com and “yahoo@jdoe. mailshell.com” when registering at Yahoo.com. E-mail sent to those addresses would then go to Mailshell, which would automatically forward them to Doe’s real e-mail box.

If Doe is sick of mail coming from a particular source, he could delete the alias from the Mailshell site without losing e-mail from other sources.

Mailshell offers a basic form of its service for free. A premium version, with more disk space and forwarding options, costs $29.95 per year.

If you don’t want to go to the trouble of creating a new alias every time you sign up for an online service, several software products promise to block junk mail from reaching your main address. The top-sellers in this niche include SpamKiller and Spam Buster.

Most of the anti-spam software programs aren’t 100 percent effective, though, because spam senders are constantly figuring out ways around the roadblocks.

“The software is good at blocking yesterday’s spam, but not tomorrow’s,” said Graff.

Powerful spam filters also run the risk of blocking legitimate e-mail.

The problem stems partially from the vague definitions of spam. Some people regard all unsolicited e-mail as spam, whether it be an offer from a pornographic Web site or a chain letter passed along by a friend. Others are OK with certain unsolicited messages, such as those from charities and political organizations.

By almost any definition, though, spam is proliferating.

The spam attacks detected by Brightmail, an anti-spam service, have soared from 2,000 a day in mid-2000 to 28,000 during one day last month, said Gary Hermanson, Brightmail’s chief executive. Each attack could include tens of thousands of individual e-mail targets.

San Francisco-based Brightmail makes software that is installed on e-mail gateways, including those of many major Internet service providers, to block spam and viruses.

The service draws upon existing spam databases as well as automatic sensors that remain on the lookout for new sources of spam. Graff regards Brightmail and Burlington, Mass.-based Elron Software as the most effective spam filters.

Other standalone software products are mostly prioritizers.

Incline SoftWorks, a start-up in Lake Tahoe, Nev., builds eMailBoss around Outlook’s Rules. The software, which only works on Outlook, sorts incoming mail into programmable categories, including “VIP,” “Friends and Family” and “Junk Mail.”

The software also includes spam-blocking features and will announce aloud when e-mail arrives from specified senders. After a free 30-day trial period, the software costs $39.95.

SAN JOSE — Charges will be dropped against a Russian computer programmer accused of violating electronic-book copyrights in exchange for his testimony in the trial of his company, ending part of a case that has generated worldwide protests.

Dmitry Sklyarov, 27, had been charged in the first criminal prosecution under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. He could have faced up to five years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

Sklyarov will be required to give a deposition in the case and possibly testify for either side, prosecutors and defense attorneys said Thursday. If he also refrains from violating copyright laws until the case against his employer is settled, the charges will be dropped.

“Until I’m in Russia, it is too early to say that I’m happy,” Sklyarov said in a statement. “But this agreement looks like the first significant change in my situation for the last five months, my first real chance to get home.”

Sklyarov and his employer, ElComSoft Co. Ltd. of Moscow, were charged with releasing a program that let readers disable restrictions on Adobe Systems Inc. electronic-book software. The program is legal in Russia.

Sklyarov was arrested after speaking at a hacking convention in Las Vegas on July 16. He was freed on bail in August but was required to remain in Northern California while the case proceeded. He now will be allowed to return home with his wife and two children.

“With this agreement, Dmitry gets everything he could get from an acquittal, and more. The indictment will be dismissed eventually, he gets to tell his story truthfully without pressure from the government, and he gets to go home now, rather than wait in the U.S. while the case is fought,” said Sklyarov’s attorney, John Keker.

ElComSoft’s chief executive, Alex Katalov, said he was pleased that the company, not Sklyarov, would bear sole responsiblity for the charges.

Critics of the case have contended that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act stifles legitimate computer research and gives book publishers, record companies and movie studios too tight a grip on online content — at the expense of the “fair use” and “first-sale” premises traditionally found in U.S. copyright law.

Adobe’s eBook Reader gives publishers a format for selling books online. It is designed to prevent the transfer of materials between users and devices without publishers’ consent.

Sklyarov found flaws in the software’s encryption scheme and created ways for users to make backup copies of e-books or transfer them to other devices, such as handheld computers. ElComSoft used the techniques in a program it sold as the Advanced eBook Processor.

After the software became available for download in the United States, for around $99, Adobe complained to the FBI, which arrested Sklyarov as he was preparing to fly back to Russia from the computer security convention.

Adobe eventually dropped its support of the case after Internet policy groups threatened to organize a boycott of the company’s products. Protesters in many cities in the United States and abroad have spent months calling for the case against Sklyarov to be dropped.

“The public was simply unsupportive of putting software programmers in jail for writing software that is legal in the country they live in,” said Robin Gross, staff attorney for intellectual property at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which supported Sklyarov. “It was a little heavy-handed.”

Watching a smiling Osama bin Laden assess the Sept. 11 terror attacks, a man who was in the World Trade Center that day said he wanted to smash his TV screen. Said a Marine who also watched bin Laden, “He needs to be taken out.”

For many other Americans, seeing the tape Thursday confirmed their already solid belief in bin Laden’s guilt and hatefulness.

Some American Muslims worried that release of the videotape, showing bin Laden and top aides cheerfully discussing the attack’s outcome, would provoke a new wave of harassment and vandalism against them, while the father of a Sept. 11 victim wished it had never been made public.

“Whenever I saw it on television I changed the channel,” said Anthony Gambale, whose daughter, Giovanna, was killed at the World Trade Center.

“It should be filed away and let the government and the CIA take care of it,” Gambale said. “Let everybody rest in peace. Let us get on with our lives.”

Mark Finelli, an investment banker who was on the 61st floor of one of the twin towers on Sept. 11, wasn’t surprised by what he saw. Nonetheless, the 25-year-old from Tucson, Ariz., felt “very violent and enraged. ... I just wanted to punch the screen.”

“I’m a very strong supporter of capital punishment, but in this case, with someone who wants to die, I’m very much in favor of letting him rot.”

In San Diego, Marine Lance Cpl. Tate Parmer said he and his colleagues had never doubted bin Laden was responsible for the attacks.

“I figured it was him all along,” said Parmer, 30, of Salt Lake City, a military policeman at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. “He’s an evil man. He definitely needs to be taken out.”

In New York City, scores of people gathered on the sidewalk in Times Square to watch the tape.

“I can’t believe they’re actually praising their god for this,” said David Castellano, 27, a computer technician from Brooklyn. “They seem overjoyed by the fact that it was a worse tragedy than they anticipated.”

Tad Heitmann, a public relations executive from Laguna Beach, Calif., watched bin Laden on a TV in a Philadelphia hotel lobby.

“If that translation is correct, he’s our man, definitely,” Heitmann said. “This must be very painful for people who lost loved ones.”

Sarah Eltantawi, communications director for the Washington-based Muslim Public Affairs Council, said the council shared the view that bin Laden masterminded the attacks. But she worried the video would stir up anti-Muslim sentiment among some Americans.

“The harassment has calmed down since the immediate aftermath of the attacks,” she said. “But whenever there is a new alert, we see a jump in hate crimes. We worry about the releases of tapes like this.”

In Dearborn, Mich., home to an estimated 20,000 Arab-Americans, Lebanese-born Lamia Hazimy, 32, struggled to understand the conversation on the tape, but said it proved bin Laden’s guilt.

“I don’t know much about bin Laden, but I know I do not like him,” she said.

Imad Hamad, director of the Dearborn regional office of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said the U.S. government translation on the tape seemed accurate.

“It’s clear in the tape that he had the prior knowledge,” Hamad said of Bin Laden. “And he was happy about it. This is insane.”

In Indianapolis, firefighters at Station No. 13 said the tape reinforced their feelings on to deal with bin Laden.

“He’s just admitting to it and boasting,” said Matt Hahn, 30. “What we’re all looking for now is a swift, stern, exact punishment.”

Lt. Scott McCarty, a firefighter for 19 years, was a member of an Indiana task force that helped in the recovery effort at the World Trade Center.

“We had a lot of good friends that we lost in New York,” said McCarty. “It doesn’t matter what he said. It doesn’t bring those people back.”

Stuart Fischoff, professor of media psychology at the Los Angeles campus of California State University, said the tape lacked a “smoking gun” but was persuasive nonetheless. He was particularly struck by bin Laden’s demeanor.

“He’s a new type of demon, a villain who is so quiet,” Fischoff said. “The power of his threat is not in his expansive emotionalism but in the quiet way he hisses his words.”

One of three inertial measurement units aboard Endeavour malfunctioned early Thursday, setting off an alarm in the cockpit after the astronauts had gone to bed. It was immediately taken off-line, another unit took over, and shuttle commander Dominic Gorie was told to go back to sleep.

The unit started working again, even though it was not being used to guide Endeavour, said flight director Wayne Hale. He stressed that nothing is jeopardized by having just two reliable inertial measurement units — only one is needed to fly the shuttle.

But if another one fails — an unlikely event, according to Hale — the shuttle would be forced to return to Earth because there no longer would be any redundancy.

At this point, engineers are merely trying to figure out what went wrong. One of the gyroscopes in the device apparently started to rotate slowly, which disturbed the stability of the unit, Hale said. An intermittent electrical failure in circuitry may be to blame.

“I’ve got to stress that the engineering community is still out there thinking about this,” he said. “While I think it’s a long shot, they might come back and say this is an explained condition and we really don’t have anything to worry about, although right now we’re being very conservative with how we treat this particular black box.”

The departing international space station residents, meanwhile, ceremoniously handed over control to their successors Thursday.

“The ship is now your responsibility,” said outgoing commander Frank Culbertson. He presented his replacement, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Onufrienko, with the ship’s log and firmly grasped his right hand.

Departing cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin noted that the next space station crew is bound to have difficulties during the next six months. “So good luck, guys. The best wishes to you,” he said.

Culbertson, Tyurin and Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Dezhurov actually moved out of the space station and into the docked Endeavour last weekend. At that point, Onufrienko and American astronauts Daniel Bursch and Carl Walz became the official space station residents.

But it wasn’t until Thursday that the two crews held the customary change-in-command ceremony based on the traditions of the high seas. Unfortunately, the communication link was lost in the middle of the ceremony, and nothing could be seen or heard from the orbiting complex for 90 seconds.

The link was restored just in time to see the 10 space travelers embrace and shake hands.

Endeavour will undock from the space station Saturday and land two days later. The touchdown will end a 129-day mission for Culbertson and his crew, which began in August.

BOSTON — US Airways concourses at Logan International Airport were closed for 90 minutes Thursday after the FAA discovered some employees at security checkpoints were improperly trained.

The checkpoints were being run by Argenbright Security Inc., Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said.

“We noticed some things going on, we went over, we asked some questions and it turns out some of the screeners who were manning the checkpoints were not adequately trained,” he said.

Argenbright spokesman Brian Lott said he didn’t know about the incident and had no immediate comment.

Argenbright, the nation’s largest airport security company, agreed last month to cease operations at Logan after several breaches. Its final day at Logan is Friday.

US Airways passengers were being checked again, and those who were already in the air would be screened upon arrival, Peters said. Thirty US Airways flights along the East Coast were delayed or canceled, he said.

Argenbright agreed to pay a $1 million fine last year for hiring convicted felons. Massachusetts police tried to revoke the company’s state license, but agreed Argenbright could leave Logan while continuing business elsewhere in the state.

Argenbright does not provide security at Logan for American or United, the two airlines whose jets were hijacked from Boston and crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

City officials hope the luminous orange squares appended to three-foot sticks will stop the local terrorists – drivers who speed through crosswalks occupied by pedestrians.

Councilmember Polly Armstrong showed off the first flagged intersection Wednesday to a gaggle of appreciative neighbors and members of the press at Russell Street and Claremont Avenue.

Here’s how it works: There’s a bin with about 10 flags stationed at each of the four corners of an intersection. A pedestrian picks up a flag from one bin, holds it high while crossing the street and deposits it into the bin on the other side of the street.

“I’m thrilled,” Armstrong said of the project, an emulation of one in Salt Lake City where, she added, pedestrian accidents decreased by 15 percent after the flags were introduced.

Reducing auto vs. pedestrian accidents in Berkeley is high on the list of city priorities.

“Berkeley has more than two times the rate of pedestrian injuries and more than four times the rate of bicycle injuries compared with the state of California,” according to the city’s Public Health Department.

Will the cars stop when pedestrians wave the flag? Armstrong advised pedestrians to continue their hypervigilance.

One Daily Planet reporter grabbed a flag and started to cross Russell, but was stopped by a driver turning right through three-quarters of the crosswalk she had stepped into. The driver stopped and looked directly at the reporter, who was shaking the flag at him. With half-a-dozen TV cameras aimed his way, the driver backed out of the crosswalk, permitting the reporter to cross the street.

Other drivers were seen darting through the crosswalks paying little attention to the persons with flags at the crossings. Most, however, stopped and allowed the people to cross.

“We’ll give it a try,” Armstrong said. The cost is only about $500 per intersection. “We’re working with UC Berkeley to evaluate (the project),” she said.

It is assumed that at first flags will be stolen, but people will soon tire of that, she said. Nearby neighbors will have extra flags and take responsibility for replacing missing ones.

Why start out at this intersection?

It’s not a high-accident corner, Armstrong said. But drivers come from the university with the aim of getting home quickly and don’t watch for pedestrians. The intersection has “been a worry, primarily in the evening,” she said.

In the next several weeks, the city will add flags to three other intersections: College Avenue between Russell and Ashby Avenue, Shattuck and Hearst avenues (where a young woman was killed crossing the street last year) and University and McGee avenues. And within the next several months the city will add University and Shattuck avenues, the most dangerous intersection in the city and Shattuck between Cedar and Vine streets, said Reh-lin Chen, acting supervisor of traffic engineering.

Chuck Collingwood and Martin Thomas present a slide lecture on the essentials for surviving overnight in the snow and discuss the basics for safe and enjoyable ski or snowshoe travel. 527-4140

Simplicity Forum

7 - 8:30 p.m.

Claremont Branch Library

2940 Benvenue Ave.

Monthly meeting that features people telling stories about the ways they have changed their lives by finding ways to work less, consume less. 549-3509, www.seedsofsimplicity.org.

Gaia Building Open House

Benefit

4 - 8 p.m.

The Gaia Building, 7th Floor

2116 Allston Way

The Gaia Building, a residential housing project, celebrates its opening with an open house to benefit the Berkeley Emergency Food and Housing Project. $10, sliding scale. 883-1000, panoramicinterests.com.

Community Health

Commission

6:45 - 9:30 p.m.

South Berkeley Senior Center

2939 Ellis St.

The commission agenda includes increased funding for Public Health Infrastructure. 644-6109, phd@ci.berkeley.ca.us.

Housing Advisory Commission

7:30 p.m.

South Berkeley Senior Center

2939 Ellis St.

Discussion and final action of $1.4 million proposal by Affordable Housing Associates for new construction of 38 rental units for seniors at 2517 Sacramento St., Outback Senior Homes.

Friday, Dec. 14

Partial-Solar Eclipse Viewing

11 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Lawrence Hall of Science

Centennial Dr., just above UC Berkeley Campus

Telescopes and specially designed sun-spotters will be set up for safe viewing of the partial eclipse. $3 - $7. 642-5132, www.lawrencehallofscience.org

clothing and gift booths in a magical and colorful scene. 644-2032, www.lightcraft.org.

Staff

Thursday December 13, 2001

Don’t abandon what makes U.S. truly best

Editor:

I’m writing this letter out of concern for statements and policies espoused by Attorney General Ashcroft. I’m quite sure this e-mail will never be seen by him, but out of respect and love for my country, I must make the effort.

I suppose my biggest question is why he feels it necessary to begin laying the groundwork for a wholesale abandonment of what makes my country the best in the world. I was outraged to hear that he has vilified my fellow Americans who are standing up for their Constitution. In fact, I don’t believe I go too far in suggesting he may be on the same path of recklessly endangering the national security of the United States as have former presidents Reagan and Bush.

I grew up at a time when these presidents were doing everything in their power to endanger the safety and security of American citizens, both domestically and abroad, and I’m deeply concerned that Mr. Ashcroft’s policies are opening the floodgates on further abuses of basic human rights, not to mention rights guaranteed as inviolate by the U.S. Constitution. I sincerely hope he is called to answer before the courts for his violation of Constitutional rights of persons already illegally detained.

I am heartened in knowing that a substantial number of influential persons have already spoken out against his draconian, unAmerican and illegal policies, and I hope that reason will prevail in the long run. I understand the Executive Branch’s knee-jerk reaction to the unprecedented horrors of September 11, but it in no way excuses either Bush’s or Ashcroft’s violation of American civil rights. While the outrageous conduct and executive orders issued by both men may seem reasonable to some in light of the recent events, what safeguards have we, as Americans, that these policies will be dismantled or at the very least, not abused in the coming months, once the initial shock has waned?

While I don’t fall within the category of those currently targeted for abuse by the Justice Department, I almost wish I was, as it would be easier to bring the light of public scrutiny on the criminal actions of Bush and Ashcroft.

I do hope these men are called to answer for their violations of fundamental Amercian civil rights. I certainly understand the need to prepare for and prevent further acts of terror, but I would hope that would apply to domestic attacks as well as foreign. At this time, I am almost ashamed to be American, as everything I’ve lived for, and my brother died for (in Desert Shield) has been made a mockery of by President Bush and Attorney General Ashcroft.

Gordon Romei

Oakland

Keep Santa Fe right of way open space

Editor:

Santa Fe Right of Way is protected open space, according to Berkeley Partners for Parks and a 1995 memo by Deputy City Attorney Zach Cowan. Contrary to Councilmember Linda Maio’s and Deputy City Attorney Zach Cowan’s statements to the Berkeley Daily Planet (12/7/01 p.7), the Public Parks and Open Space Preservation Ordinance (“Measure L” at http://www.bpfp.org/parkdocuments/measurel.htm) applies to informal open space, including the north of University Avenue portion of the Santa Fe Right of Way.

In fact a 1995 internal city memo by Zach Cowan states: “A straightforward interpretation of ‘public open space’ includes park land and other vacant open space which is, or can be, used for recreational or open space purposes.” He concludes the discussion of Measure L by stating “…we conclude…that possibly excepting the area used for parking, the West Street section is subject to Measure L.”

BPFP points out in a 12/4/01 letter to City Council that in addition to Measure L, there are other legal and practical challenges that make affordable housing on most of the right of way infeasible.

BPFP Board Member Stephen Swanson said “Building housing on the northern portion of the Santa Fe Right of Way is neither practical nor legal. Councilmember Maio’s amendment to the Draft General Plan to make open space and affordable housing equal priorities on the Santa Fe Right of Way would sink plans for a bicycle/pedestrian greenway by stalemating the process, and would do nothing for affordable housing.

John Steere, another boardmember, adds that the “original intent of the city’s acquisition of the Santa Fe Right of Way was for open space. This is demonstrated by the parks already created on it such as Strawberry Creek Park and Cedar Rose. Putting housing on an equal footing with open space would violate this intent and demonstrate that the city is unwilling or unable to sustain its sense of priorities for this public space that has been sorely neglected for over two decades.”

Stephen Swanson and John Thelen Steere

Berkeley Partners for Parks board members

Residence for elders needs heat

The Berkeley Daily Planet received a copy of this letter addressed to the mayor and City Council:

Since the mayor doesn’t understand what it is to be old or poor, she and Section 8 director and Berkeley Housing Director Stephen Barton should spend tonight (30 -40 degrees reported) in the slum apartments known as the Harriet Tubman House. The furnace hasn’t worked for 16 years of 27 years it’s been there. Why hasn’t the city told these people not to pay rent and buy an oven for $125 just plug it in or take $100 from rent and buy heaters? Why hasn’t Section 8 kept rent and gotten new ovens for each apartment and two safe space heaters? or fixed furnaces with rent money?

If the city doesn’t correct this problem soon, I will demand the fire chief shut the place down. If not I will ask the Alameda County Fire Chief and state fire marshall to shut it down on Dec 17.

Mayor you’re wrong. The old folks can’t wait till next year. They might freeze to death or get sick and die or burn to death.

Leslie S Sullivan

Berkeley

Terror common to Israel and U.S.

Editor:

Israel and the United States share many things, besides being pluralistic democracies. Unfortunately, terror is the common denominator. The American people stood shocked on Sept. 11th, although this was just a taste of what Israelis have been living through for the past 54 years. When bombs go off in pizzerias, discotheques or pedestrian malls, there are no explanations. What justification is there for a young man who builds a bomb, straps it to his body, adds nails and bolts to increase the deadly potential and walks into an area crowded with youngsters to detonate his bomb?? The US failed where Israel has succeeded. Despite the fear, Israelis continue with their lives. They still go downtown to meet friends, eat pizza and dance. Staying home is giving in to terror. We can’t let the terrorist dictate our lives. Israel has been offering peace to the Palestinian people, who have not been preparing themselves for peace with their neighbors. Instead, they have resorted to terror, just as Mohammed Atta and his colleagues did.

Devora Liss

Berkeley resident

Ecocity plan not progressive or environmentalist

Editor:

What about the Gaia building enhances the environment? Perhaps the decorative roof top gardens. Definitely not the cold, damp windy experience walking in front of the building. This is the same wonderful experience one has standing in front of the Wells Fargo tower or the Power Bar building. A downtown dotted with such high-rises could only be labeled Gotham City most environmentally unfriendly? Akin to walking on Montgomery, Sansome or Battery streets in San Francisco. Yet this is the Ecocity Amendment vision for Berkeley. Appropriate for moles and cars not walking humans who prosper in sunshine and light.

The Gaia has no setbacks, no street trees, and the required open space is all up on the roof, or the inner courtyard accessible to a mere few. Where are the roof photovoltaic cells to make the building energy independent? There are no visible signs of "green" in this building and yet Ecocity builders claims this as a product of their redesign specifications.

Does thwarting the will of the populace define progressive? Ecocity builders repeatedly submitted its amendments to the Draft General Plan. There were 52 meetings over three years. The citizenry, Planning Commission and city staff worked very hard to find consensus from all the divergent views Berkeley represents. The finished product was created slowly and deliberately. Probably no one, likes everything in the final draft but that is what consensus is all about, compromise. The planning commission and staff realized the majority of the respondents just did not endorse the Ecocity Amendments and were summarily excluded from the final draft of the General Plan.

Regarding housing, the draft calls for our Association of Bay Area Government mandated fair share of 169 new housing units per year. That is more than Berkeley’s increased population in the last decade. In addition, we are committed to 320 low-income units per year or 6,400 in the next 20 years.

I am sure Ecocity builders are aware of Patrick Kennedy’s attempts to excise the 10 to 20 percent affordable units required of all new buildings in Berkeley presently. Whose deeds don’t match their words? It doesn’t sound like Ecocity’s commitment to affordable housing is very strong at all.

All the neighborhood activists accept the General Plan’s increased housing requirements. We ask that new housing be contextually sensitive in-fill.

I wish these folks nostalgic for high-rises would return to their East Coast roots and stop trying to make Berkeley over into a major metropolis. We are a tiny city, geographically just four by four miles and population just a little over 100,000. Instead of comparing us to Paris, New York, Boston, whatever how about Santa Barbara or Santa Monica, Siena instead of Roma, Kyoto instead of Tokyo, Cairns instead of Sydney.

“Every Inch a King” Jan. 11 through Feb. 9: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m.; Three sisters have to make a decision as their father approaches death in this comedy presented by the Central Works Theater Ensemble. $8 - $18. LeValls Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. 558-1381

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. 239-2252 www.acteva.com/go/havefun

“The Whole World’s Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960s and 1970s” Through Dec. 16: A documentary photo exhibition which examines the rich history of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Wed. - Sun., noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., Live Oak Park. Free. 644-6893

“Images of Innocence and Beauty” Dec. 19 through Jan. 8: An exhibit featuring Kathleen Flannigan’s drawing and furniture - boxes, tables, and mirrors, all embellished with images of the beauty and innocence of the natural world. Addison Street Windows, 2018 Addison St.

“Ansel Adams in the University of California Collections” Dec. 12 through Mar. 10: A selection of photographs and memorabilia presenting a different perspective on Adam’s career as one of the leading figures in American photography. Wed, Fri. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thur. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. $4- $6. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot by 40 foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Mon. through Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu

Hoping to wash away the painful memories of the recently completed 1-10 disaster of a season, Cal introduced a new head football coach on Wednesday morning. University of Oregon offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Jeff Tedford will be the man to replace Tom Holmoe on the Cal sideline, agreeing to a reported five-year contract late Tuesday night.

Tedford comes with an impressive offensive resume, having orchestrated an explosive attack at Fresno State from 1992-98 before moving to Oregon and helping the Ducks reach national prominence.

The 40-year-old Tedford started his coaching career with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League in 1989, and has helped develop outstanding college quarterbacks such as Trent Dilfer, David Carr, Akili Smith and Joey Harrington.

Cal athletic director Steve Gladstone chose Tedford among three other final candidates: former Cal and Arizona State head coach Bruce Snyder, South Carolina defensive coordinator Charlie Strong and Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive line coach Rod Marinelli, a Cal graduate.

“This hire represents the culmination of an extensive and thorough search, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the result,” Gladstone said. “I have enormous confidence in Jeff.”

Tedford will remain in his position with the third-ranked Ducks through their Jan. 1 Fiesta Bowl date with Colorado, but will also begin meeting with Cal players and coaches immediately, as well as coordinating recruiting efforts for his new school.

“I don’t sleep much,” Tedford said at Wednesday’s press conference at Memorial Stadium. “I spend a lot of late nights up working.”

Tedford, who has never been a head coach at any level, will try to avoid the pitfalls that Holmoe fell into in his own first head coaching job. Holmoe, who finished with the second-lowest winning percentage over more than one season in Cal history, often said he was overwhelmed by the demands of dealing with alumni and peripheral factors involved in running the program.

“I haven’t heard a lot of horror stories, but I realize there are problems in any job,” Tedford said. “But I’m sure all the problems are rectifiable.”

Perhaps the biggest off-field issue for the program is sub-par facilities, such as the antiquated weight room and rickety Memorial Stadium. The fund-raising for upgrades has been slow in developing, and Cal has perhaps the worst facilities in the Pac-10. Oregon, for example, spent $28 million on new athletic facilities in the last nine years, including a new indoor practice facility, and is currently in the midst of an $80 million expansion for Autzen Stadium.

“When you look at the arms race going on around the country, and especially in the Pac-10, it is critical to have the facilities that recruits want to see,” Tedford said. “(Recruits) are impressionable, and they’re impressed by those things. But it’s an ongoing process that, from what I understand by talking to the administration, will be in the works.”

Tedford said he has contacted several candidates about working on his staff, meaning most of the current staff will be let go. One exception could be running backs coach Ron Gould, whom Tedford singled out as a coach he would like to keep. But for the financially-strapped Cal athletic department, a fresh start will mean buying out the contracts of offensive coordinator Al Borges, hired just a year ago, and defensive coordinator Lyle Setencich, each of who make nearly $200,000 per year.

Both have coached with Tedford before and are possible candidates to replace him at Oregon.

Tedford intends to model his role after that of Mike Bellotti, head coach of Oregon, taking an overseer position and leaving game-planning and play-calling to his offensive coordinator. But he said he will “do fundamental work with the quarterbacks every day.”

One of Tedford’s first challenges will be to work with senior-to-be Kyle Boller, the Bears’ starting quarterback for the past three seasons. Boller, who turned down Tedford and Oregon to come to Cal, has never lived up to the hype he received as one of the nation’s top recruits in 1998.

“Kyle has tremendous ability and potential,” Tedford said. “He has all the attributes he needs to be a great quarterback.”

Tedford is considered an excellent recruiter, and he emphasized a plan to “saturate the Bay Area” in getting talent. But with most of the top players having verbally committed to schools and the uncertainty surrounding the Cal coaching staff, it will likely be a tough sell for next year’s class. Most of the current staff is on the road visiting recruits, but most of them are likely lame-duck coaches, not usually an effective recruiting tool. Tedford said he would put serious effort into filling some holes with junior college players.

A front-runner for the San Diego State head job this offseason, since filled by junior-college coach Tom Craft, Tedford removed himself for consideration for the Aztecs when he learned of Gladstone’s interest in him. Tedford has been patient in his quest for a head coach position, turning down the opportunity to be a candidate at Fresno State when Jim Sweeney resigned after the 1996 season even though Sweeney publicly campaigned for Tedford to be his successor.

“I was not ready, honestly, in my heart and soul that I wasn’t ready to be a head coach back then,” Tedford said. “It wouldn’t have been fair for me to apply for the job knowing I wasn’t ready.”

But the past five years, watching Fresno State head coach Pat Hill remake the team with his vision and watching Bellotti turn the Ducks into a national power, have given him the confidence to take over a Pac-10 team.

“I feel like I’ve made myself eligible to be a head coach,” he said. “I’ve worked under a lot of great coaches in some great programs.”

That is the mantra at Willard Middle School, where a new principal, Michele Patterson, has helped to galvanize an institution roiled by a high-profile assault and inner turmoil last year.

“Michele has really brought the community together and the staff together,” said Mark Coplan, parent of a sixth grader at Willard. “She’s tremendous.”

Last year, discipline problems, a sexual assault on a 12-year-old student and widespread discontent with Willard’s administration left a once-strong school in poor shape.

“When I got here, the teachers were very frustrated with what they called a lack of leadership, and student discipline was not what it should be,” Patterson said. “Parents did not think their kids were safe here, and there was a lot of fingerpointing about who was to blame.”

Patterson began with a two-day faculty retreat in August at a Sonoma County ranch.

“There was a lot of laughing, a lot of talking, and a lot of tears,” she said of the retreat, “and we’ve been working ever since.”

Vana Jones, an eighth-grade science teacher at Willard, said the retreat was a turning point.

“We saw that we had a leader who could provide direction,” Jones said, and now, “the sense that we have a united staff is very strong.”

When school began, Patterson and her leadership team made safety their top priority. The administration beefed up the adult presence on the playground, cut off access to secluded balconies, which had once been open to students during lunch and implemented a conflict resolution program to prevent student disputes from escalating.

Students say they notice the difference. “I think this year there’s a lot more teachers around,” said Jonathan Jardim, an eighth-grader at Willard.

“It’s a lot safer,” added Andy Spellman, another eighth grader.

Still, administrators have encountered a few obstacles along the way. Funding and personnel issues led to the closure of Willard’s in-house suspension program earlier this year, Patterson said, cutting down on the number of discipline options available at the school.

Compliance on new safety and discipline initiatives has also been an issue. “Anytime you change policies, you also have to change habits,” said Greg John, Willard’s new vice principal, “and the teachers have picked up some bad habits.” For instance, he said, a few teachers still leave students unattended in the classroom for short periods of time.

But the school has made significant progress. John said he used to deal with 12-16 discipline cases per day, but the numbers have decreased.

“Now we’ve gotten to the place where we can shift and begin to look at instruction,” he said.

One of Patterson’s top instruction priorities is the school-wide implementation of a “coring” system, already in place in the sixth grade.

Under “coring,” a school is divided not into academic departments, like math or history, but into small “families.” A set group of teachers, one drawn from each of the major disciplines, works with a set group of students. That way, a math and history teacher in the same “family” can collaborate on how to best educate their students.

Jones, the eighth grade science teacher, said she worked in a pilot coring program several years ago, before it fizzled under the previous administration. “Some of the best years I had were those years,” she said. “I’m looking forward to it being reinstated.”

Patterson said she hopes to put coring in place at the seventh and eighth grade levels next year, but noted that some teachers are already meeting with each other, and coordinating, on their own time.

“Teachers have really been going above and beyond,” Patterson said. “That’s the best thing that can happen to a principal.”

The missing link, at this point, has been parent participation. Patterson said that only five parents have been heavily involved at Willard this year.

“We were under the impression that we could get parents out to help turn around the school,” the principal said. “It’s moving forward, but it’s moving slowly.”

Marcia Masse, mother of a seventh grader at Willard who volunteers frequently at the school says she is disappointed with the lack of parental involvement.

“There’s this culture that says you don’t need volunteers at junior high,” Masse said, “but these kids are itching for validation.”

Masse said the school needs to offer busy parents very specific tasks and time slots to encourage participation. But she also said that Patterson’s energy will ultimately woo the community.

“She’s present, she’s on the campus, she’s visible...she’s raring to go,” Masse said. “I think she is an amazing person.”

When Cal chancellor Robert Berdahl made crew rowing coach Steve Gladstone his surprise pick as athletic director earlier this year, he knew he was hiring an unusual candidate, one who would do things a bit differently than your average administrator. The hiring process for Cal’s new head football coach, Jeff Tedford, shows just how independent Gladstone is.

Gladstone made it clear at Wednesday’s press conference that Tedford is, above all else, his choice for the job. Although Gladstone was assisted by a search committee that included rugby coach Jack Clark and other Cal administrators, that committee was in an advisory position only.

“The decision was made by me in consultation with a lot of people,” Gladstone said. “But it was ultimately my decision.”

As is customary these days, a small group of Cal players got to meet with the final candidates for the job, but Gladstone seemingly didn’t put much stock in their input. Several players said they supported South Carolina defensive coordinator Charlie Strong for the job, although they didn’t know anything about Tedford and had open minds towards the new coach.

“I’d never heard of (Tedford) before yesterday,” freshman tailback Terrell Williams said Wednesday. “But I’ll go meet him right now and see what’s up.”

Junior linebacker Paul Ugenti spoke with Tedford and liked what he heard.

“I really enjoyed talking to him,” Ugenti said. “He had some good ideas about how to bring us back together as a team. There were some divisions that developed during the season.”

But although the players know who the head coach will be next season, there’s still a lot to be decided. Tedford is likely to hire an almost entirely new staff of coaches, but first he has to finish his season with Oregon, who play Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 1.

“It’s a relief to have a head coach, but it’s still hanging over our heads that we don’t have a defensive coordinator,” Ugenti said. “(Tedford) still has to finish his job at Oregon before he can concentrate on us. It’s hard to know what’s going on.”

After a yearlong moratorium, the City Council adopted “workable” amendments to Berkeley’s Zoning Ordinance, which will govern the placement of cell phone antennae around town.

After listening to presentations from a citizens group, telecommunications attorneys and a planning commissioner, the council approved a compromise recommendation, which primarily consisted of the staff’s proposed ordinance with three Planning Commission amendments and one from the citizens group.

The ordinance was approved by a 6-1-1 vote, with Councilmember Kriss Worthington voting in opposition and Councilmember Betty Olds abstaining. Councilmember Margaret Breland did not attend the meeting due to an illness.

Unless the proposed site is in a nonresidential district and has existing wireless antennae, the ordinance will compel telecommunications companies to go through a lengthy regulatory process, which will include demonstrating that a proposed site is necessary to area coverage, compliance with a variety of design standards and application review by the Zoning Adjustments Board.

The council rejected a citizens’ amendment that would have established a 150-foot buffer zone around schools, day care centers and residences.

Last December the council adopted a 45-day moratorium on new antenna applications after a group of Solano Avenue neighbors, concerned about health risks from radio frequency waves that wireless antennae emit, protested a Zoning Adjustments Board decision to allow Nextel Communications to install a wireless telecommunications antenna on the roof of the Oaks Theater at 1875 Solano Ave. The council twice extended the moratorium.

Councilmembers, commissioners and city staff said cobbling the ordinance together was a complex project because of scrutiny by telecommunication lawyers who were threatening lawsuits if the new ordinance violated the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Federal law prohibits local governments from regulating the antennae based on potential environmental or health hazards.

In addition the council was under time pressure because the moratorium is scheduled to expire this month and the council is restricted from further extensions.

“I think we did the best we could do with the deadline,” Mayor Shirley Dean said. “And we still have the option of making more amendments in the future.”

It remains to be seen whether the council was successful in choosing a compromise ordinance that will satisfy both the citizens group which doesn’t want the antennae near schools or residential neighborhoods and the telecommunication companies which have sent a parade of lawyers to City Council and Planning Commission meetings protesting a restrictive ordinance.

Worthington said he voted against the ordinance because he was unconvinced that it would preclude litigation under the Telecommunications Act.

“Unfortunately I think it conflicts with federal law,” he said. “While I don’t agree with the law, I think working to change it is better than working against it.”

Olds said she abstained because she had not had sufficient time to examine the material that was submitted to council by the Planning and Development Department, the Planning Commission and a lawyer representing the citizens group.

Nextel attorney Nick Selby said the ordinance was extremely complex and would make the application process very complex and time consuming. But he added the ordinance could possibly be “workable.”

“The proof will be in the pudding,” he said. “If the city implements the new ordinance in an overly restrictive manner so new cell sites can’t be added or modifications can’t be made to an existing site, there still could be a violation of the Telecommunications Act.”

Dean also took a wait-and-see attitude. “We’re plowing new ground here so we’ll have to see what happens,” she said.

Of the 14 amendments recommended by the citizens group, only one was adopted by the council. The amendment called for unannounced antenna spot checks by a qualified engineer every two years at the expense of the telecommunication company. The spot check would verify if the equipment was working correctly and the level of radio frequency radiation was at or below FCC standards.

Erica Etelson, an attorney who is a member of the citizens group, said that she was disappointed the council did not consider more of the group’s proposed amendments.

“I’m terribly disappointed, we had so many amendments that the City Council rejected without much discussion at all,” she said.

Planning Commissioner Gordon Wozniack said the Planning Commission put a great deal of time into their recommendation. He added that the commissioners, which are usually at odds with one another, were able to reach unanimous agreement on their recommendation during a Nov. 19 meeting.

Wozniack said telecommunications representatives provided the commission with information that indicated there would not be that many antennae applications in coming years.

“I think it’s wrong to imply that Berkeley will end up with thousands of antenna sites,” he said. “In reality it’s probably more like 50.”

Cal’s Joe Shipp put on a spectacular shooting display on Tuesday night, making a school record nine 3-pointers and scoring a career-high 31 points in leading the Bears to a 97-75 win over Fresno State.

Fresno State head coach Jerry Tarkanian couldn’t believe his eyes when Shipp made all six of his treys in the first half, then his next two in the second half before finally missing one to break the streak.

“We just studied the stat sheets, and we thought (Cal’s) one weakness was not being a good outside shooting team,” said Tarkanian, who is in his 36th year of coaching college basketball. “(Shipp) just shot the lights out. Whenever he made another one, I figured he’d get cold eventually, but he kept making them.”

Shipp did eventually cool off, air-balling two of his next three long-range attempts before banking his final one in, but by then the Bears were too far ahead for the Bulldogs to do anything. Shipp hit three 3-pointers during a 28-5 run for Cal in the first half that left them with a 52-32 lead at halftime, and Tark’s team never got back in the game.

Shipp’s bombs included three from beyond NBA range, but he was quick to recognize his teammates for getting him the ball in good position to shoot. Guards Shantay Legans and Dennis Gates combined for 17 assists and were perfectly willing to give the ball up to the white-hot Shipp.

“My teammates were looking for me and set me up with some nice passes,” Shipp said. “Shantay was pushing the ball well, bringing up the tempo of the game. I was feeling good, so I just let it go.”

Legans, who also scored 12 points, had to shake off an early case of stomach trouble. During a timeout early in the opening period, the junior point guard hurdled the Cal bench and threw up into a courtside garbage can. But he came back strong, hitting two 3-pointers of his own during the Bears’ run.

“I think I just got something bad at the training table,” Legans said. “It was just in and out of me. It didn’t really affect my play.”

Fresno State struggled to score with star Melvin Ely benched due to possible NCAA rules violations, and leading scorer Chris Jefferies didn’t help by starting slowly, scoring just 3 points in the first half. Though he finished with 21 points, Jefferies clearly missed having the low-post presence of Ely to take some pressure off of him.

“Melvin’s our star, so it’s hard to play without him,” said Bulldog center Hiram Fuller, who scored 15 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. “He just takes up so much space and draws so much attention.”

But Ely likely couldn’t have stopped the Bears’ outside shooting. Wingman Brian Wethers took over where Shipp left off, hitting 3-of-3 from behind the arc in the second half and scoring 14 points. Freshman forward Jamal Sampson also scored 15 points for the Bears.

Four years in the making, the Southside Plan came one step closer to completion on Wednesday, as a new draft was released to the public and members of the Planning Commission.

The new draft, which calls for high-rise, dense housing along Bancroft Way and other blocks near the UC Berkeley campus, was written by members of the commission and incorporates the work of a series of community focus groups held during the first half of this year.

The plan’s first draft, completed in January 2000, was written by professional planners employed by the city and UC Berkeley.

In addition to housing and other land-use questions, the Southside Plan addresses transportation, economic development, community character and public safety in the area bounded by Bancroft and Dwight ways and Prospect and Fulton streets. It includes several blocks of Telegraph Avenue.

Members of the Planning Commission had hoped to circulate the new draft at their Wednesday meeting, but that meeting was canceled.

Planning Commission Chair Rob Wrenn said the new draft balanced the concerns of long-term neighborhood residents and university students.

Students, he said, wanted more housing in the Southside area, while neighborhood groups feared intense development would worsen the area’s traffic and parking problems.

“What we’ve worked out is a plan that encourages development, but encourages it in areas close to the campus and transit corridors,” he said.

The new draft calls for three housing “sub-areas.” The six blocks closest to campus would be designated as a “residential mixed use” district, in which large housing developments, as well as new offices, hotels, religious facilities and many other services would be allowed.

A larger, “high density” district, intended to encourage more housing, would be located directly south of the residential mixed-use district.

The rest of the residential areas in the neighborhood would be designated “medium density,” a designation already used in many parts of the city.

The entire Southside area west of College Avenue – aside from the commercial district along Telegraph and Durant avenues – is currently designated for high-density development.

Wrenn said that the intent of the proposed zoning changes was to “step down” from dense housing and high buildings in the center of the district into the low-density neighborhoods surrounding the Southside area.

The new draft of the plan may chill relations between the city and UC Berkeley. The city and university had worked together on the plan’s first draft. Thomas Lollini, the university’s planning director, wrote a letter to the Planning Commission contesting certain land-use elements in the new draft of the plan.

In the letter, Lollini protested the fact that several university properties east of Telegraph Avenue are included in the high density zone, which prohibits office development, rather than in the residential mixed-use zone.

“The university considers this zoning map to have been drawn with the intent of forcing the university to develop several of its sites for residential use only, while non-university owners... in similar settings are allowed much greater development flexibility,” Lollini wrote.

Wrenn denied the charge, saying that the subcommittee of the Planning Commission responsible for writing the most recent draft had done a painstaking analysis of each block in the neighborhood.

The subcommittee’s proposed zoning map takes into account the current character of each of these blocks, Wrenn said.

“They seem to think that there’s some sort of attempt to zone UC properties differently than non-UC properties, but that’s not our intent,” Wrenn said.

The transportation element of the plan has yet to be finalized. During the upcoming months, the Planning Commission will have to come to agreement about whether to convert Bancroft Way and Durant Avenue into two-way streets. They will also consider the idea of closing Telegraph Avenue to automobile traffic.

One of the reasons for the long process is that amendments to the city zoning ordinance related to the plan are being written simultaneously. Usually, zoning amendments are written and implemented after a plan has been adopted.

In the case of the West Berkeley Plan, for example, several years passed between the adoption of the plan and its implementation in the zoning code.

The Planning Commission has made completion of the plan its top priority over the coming months, and Wrenn said Wednesday that he hopes to hand a final draft to the city council by July. The final version of the plan will be incorporated into the city’s General Plan.

As the City Council meeting closed in on midnight and two councilmembers had already gone home, the council voted to supply workers who answer the city’s general information phones with material about the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors.

The idea is to have information available, so staff can refer anyone who calls asking about how to avoid military combat.

The measure had been scheduled for an earlier vote as part of the consent calendar, where items are passed without debate. But it was postponed for more discussion after Councilmember Betty Olds said she wanted to see the item amended to include giving staff information about military recruitment for people who called wanting to enlist.

Amending the recommendation is the “democratic thing to do,” Olds said, arguing that the city had already received too much media attention from a council-approved resolution calling for a speedy end to the bombing of Afghanistan.

Councilmembers and city officials received thousands of phone calls, e-mails and letters both protesting and supporting the decision.

Olds’ amendment was rejected.

Councilmember Kriss Worthington stated his opposition to Olds’ amendment, then agreed to include it as long as the original recommendation and the amendment were voted on separately.

“I first want to remind the council of the military’s discriminatory polices, policies that have caused many colleges and high schools to not invite them to recruit on their campuses,” Worthington said, referring to military discrimination against gays and lesbians.

The council then voted on the original amendment, adopted by a 5-1 vote, with Olds voting in opposition. Councilmembers Polly Armstrong and Maudelle Shriek had already left the meeting and Councilmember Margaret Breland was absent due to illness.

The council failed to approve Olds’ military recruiter amendment by a vote of 3-3, with Worthington and councilmembers Dona Spring and Linda Maio voting in opposition. Motions require five votes for approval.

The proposal came from the city’s Peace and Justice Commission, which adopted a resolution earlier this month praising Berkeley’s “unique and honored tradition of promoting alternative social values and viewpoints including nonviolence and pacifism.”

Wednesday’s Planning Commission meeting had to be canceled because of an administrative error by city staff.

Planning and Development Director Carol Barrett said that a member of the department forgot to post a notice of the meeting at the information kiosk outside Old City Hall.

In addition, the meeting agenda was not given to the City Clerk’s Office, and was therefore not posted on the city’s Web site.

The error was noticed by Berkeley citizen Howie Muir, who wrote an e-mail to Barrett asking for information about the meeting, noting that the agenda had not been posted on the Web site. Muir sent copies of his letter to Mayor Shirley Dean and City Manager Weldon Rucker.

Muir later said he was merely seeking information about an item on the agenda, and did not intend to “torpedo” the meeting.

“I certainly did not seek for the meeting to be canceled, but my question may have unintentionally led to the discovery of the problem,” he said.

The Brown Act, which regulates public accessibility to city government, mandates that the agendas of all meetings be posted in a public place 72 hours beforehand.

“I’m truly sorry for this inconvenience to people, but I couldn’t know that a person didn’t do (their) job,” said Barrett.

Advance Planning Manager Karen Haney-Owens, the normal liaison between the Planning Commission and the planning staff, recently took an indefinite leave of absence from the department.

In addition to debuting the latest Southside Plan draft, the Planning Commission had been scheduled to discuss city regulations for awarding developers concessions for providing affordable housing and applications for the city’s Housing Trust Fund.

RICHMOND — A reinforced apartment building shook, rattled, but did not fall as engineers put it to the earthquake test Wednesday.

The experiment, conducted at a University of California, Berkeley, field station, subjected the three-story building to the same kind of forces as those experienced in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Berkeley officials said it was the largest test of its kind to date.

The goal was to see how well a retrofitted steel frame would protect a building with the tuck-under, ground-level parking typical of many complexes. That kind of structure is weaker because of the openings where cars are parked.

In the Northridge quake, 16 people died in one building that had tuck-under parking. In all, the 6.7 earthquake caused more than 70 deaths and about $15.3 billion in insured losses.

Test results will be used to evaluate building ordinances and develop improved standards.

“This is not an academic exercise,” said Rich Eisner, who is with the state Office of Emergency Services and was among those watching the test.

The building tested was an experimental model built in the style of a 1960s complex, complete with boxy shape and stucco finish.

It was mounted on a huge “shake table” – a thick slab of concrete – which moves to simulate the rolling and shaking of the earthquake.

The tests sounded like the real thing, producing thunderous rumblings and rattling the small windows.

But the quivering produced little damage.

Engineers were also testing a new strategy of using tiny, wireless remote sensors to give feedback on structural integrity.

The experiment is part of a $6.9 million wood frame project funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency through the California emergency services office.

The Consortium of Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering (CUREE) manages the project under subcontract to the California Institute of Technology.

SAN ANSELMO — Even in a community where personal growth is prized above all and wealthy ex-hippies groom their children to be independent thinkers, the spiritual journey of John Walker Lindh is a shocker.

Much of the nation seems outraged that a 20-year-old American was captured fighting for the Taliban. Many see him as a traitor deserving of the death penalty, especially after it turned out that he had been carrying an AK-47 and calling himself a holy warrior, even after U.S. troops were on the ground in Afghanistan.

“He gave us up, he gave up on his country,” said Don Jackson, a butcher at the gourmet Wild Oats Market in San Anselmo who thinks Lindh deserves permanent exile. “I think the young man’s pretty much doomed. There’s no way his parents could save him from this.”

But mercy seems to be the message among many in Marin, a politically liberal county where chain stores, neckties and nonorganic coffee are shunned, and people who aren’t fortunate enough to telecommute disappear into million-dollar homes with priceless views after battling the Golden Gate Bridge traffic from San Francisco each evening.

“I don’t think it’s a big deal for young people to have weird ideas,” said Nahshon Nahumi, who repairs backyard hot tubs in the hills above Lindh’s mother’s house. “My concern is more for his well-being, to help him recover.”

An intelligent but introverted teen-ager who wore full-length robes in high school and asked his family to call him “Suleyman,” Lindh had an intense interest in Islam that was encouraged by his Buddhist mother and Irish Catholic father.

They paid for his trip to Yemen to study the Quran, worried privately when he spoke of searching for a “pure Islamic state,” then lost track of him altogether after he left a religious school in Pakistan to become a “foreign Taliban,” fighting against the northern alliance in Afghanistan.

Now a “battlefield detainee” being held in a shipping container surrounded by barbed wire at a U.S. military camp in Afghanistan, Lindh apparently has been more forthcoming to American authorities than he was in a videotaped encounter with CIA paramilitary officer Johnny “Mike” Spann, who was killed in a prison uprising moments after trying to get Lindh to talk.

Attorney General John Ashcroft hasn’t said what legal actions the government will take against Lindh, and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld declined comment when asked if he’s a traitor.

His parents, Marilyn Walker, who has worked as a nurse, and Frank Lindh, a corporate lawyer, separated several years ago. They released a statement Wednesday through the office of their attorney, James Brosnahan.

“We love John. He’s our son and like any parents, we’re going to support him through this,” the statement said. “We’re asking that people withhold judgment until we know what the facts are.”

But emotions are high among the many people following his story. In response to a question on the San Francisco Chronicle’s Web site, 60 percent of the 2,038 people volunteering opinions said he should be executed.

“Neither his American citizenship nor his small legion of U.S. sympathizers can bail him out of this predicament,” the Chronicle wrote in an editorial last week that called Lindh “the enemy.”

Just how helpful he is to U.S. forces should determine what happens to him, said Chip Gow, an investment manager from Kentfield. Like many Marin County residents, Gow objected to the idea that the community’s values necessarily led to Lindh’s predicament.

“It’s nonsense that the attitudes prevalent here give rise to Taliban warriors,” said Gow, adding that he wants his 5-year-old son to grow up to be open-minded. “I strongly believe in this sort of citizen-of-the-world notion.”

Such notions were fostered at Tamiscal High School, where Lindh graduated early from an independent studies program that involved very little class time. The school was lampooned as a “rotting, stinking left-wing” place by syndicated radio host Michael Savage in San Francisco, who thinks Lindh should be tried in Afghanistan and either executed or jailed for life.

“There’s a mentality of subversion in Marin that the children are generally raised with,” Savage complained Wednesday. “Here’s an extreme example of what can happen with this loose, permissive upbringing.”

But principal Marcie Miller said the highly competitive school remains proud of Lindh as well as its other students, who tend to be highly motivated, self-directed critical thinkers.

Lindh was drawn to Islam as early as 14 years old. In Internet chat-group messages signed by him in 1995, he was quoting Malcom X and ranting about hip-hop lyrics. Gradually, his messages about buying and selling music and computer equipment evolved into questions about Islam.

By May 1997, Lindh was asking “internet Muslims” whether Islam forbids any images of living things. Several months later, he was berating Zionists and signing his posts “Salaam, Prof. J.”

Shortly thereafter, he began attending prayers at the nearby Islamic Center of Mill Valley, one of the few white people at the mosque, according to a friend and fellow worshipper, Abdulla Nana, who knew him as “Suleyman.”

“He was a sincere person, an intelligent person, a quiet person,” said Nana, 23, an Indian-American Muslim raised in Marin County. “It sounded like he had already chosen Islam before, but he came to the mosque to formally proclaim himself as a Muslim.”

The mosque was not a place for political discussions, said Nana, who shied away from questions about the morality of Lindh’s involvement with the Taliban.

“As a friend and as a person who cares for Suleyman, I hope he can come back to his friends and family. Whether he has done something wrong is not for me to say,” Nana said. “Really, God determines. God will judge a person’s actions in the hereafter.”

SAN FRANCISCO — The state Supreme Court decided unanimously Wednesday to keep a serial rapist locked up at a state mental hospital until at least February while it considers his case.

Patrick Ghilotti had been scheduled for release nearly two weeks ago, but the state filed an emergency petition asking the Supreme Court to intervene. The court granted that request, ordering an expedited hearing Feb. 6 in Sacramento.

Ghilotti, 45, has been confined at Atascadero State Hospital for four years under a state law that allows sexually violent offenders to be committed for treatment after completing their prison sentences.

Ghilotti, who has spent nearly half his life locked up, has been convicted of raping four Marin County women and has admitted to raping at least six others.

“We are very disappointed that the court has asked for additional briefings on a point of law that seems so clear,” said Ghilotti’s lawyer, Frank Cox.

Marin County Superior Court Judge John S. Graham ruled Nov. 30 that Ghilotti should be released the following day, when his latest two-year commitment expired. He said he could find no legal reason to keep him hospitalized.

Instead, state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, at the urging of Gov. Gray Davis, filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court asking it to block Ghilotti’s release, saying he remained a danger to the public.

“The governor is gratified that the California Supreme Court is hearing this case,” said Davis spokeswoman Hillary McLean. “We hope that the Supreme Court will agree with us and with the Department of Mental Health when making a decision that could have grave implications for public safety that all relevant information regarding Mr. Ghilotti should be considered.”

Ghilotti would have been released Wednesday if the seven-member high court had refused to consider his case. He could not be reached by telephone for comment.

Ghilotti had been slated to become California’s first sex predator released under a 1996 law that has sent hundreds of the state’s worst rapists and child molesters to a mental hospital for treatment, a practice upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Two independent evaluators must certify the offender is mentally ill, a danger to society and likely to reoffend in order to commit him as a sexually violent predator. Once certified, the offender can be recommitted every two years.

In Ghilotti’s case, three Mental Health Department-approved psychologists have said the twice-convicted rapist no longer meets sexually violent predator criteria.

But the state said the opinions of other department officials also should be considered. In Ghilotti’s case, both the department and hospital directors agree he remains a public safety threat.

The justices said they want to review whether someone can be recommitted without two evaluations.

“The statute is clear, previous court decisions are clear. No person can be committed to a sexually violent predator program without two independent forensic examiners agreeing,” Cox said. “In Mr. Ghilotti’s case, three independent forensic examiners agree he no longer fits the criteria.”

SAN FRANCISCO — California’s largest utility wants to investigate and settle claims from its creditors who are owed less than $100,000 without review by a bankruptcy court or other creditors.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. also has asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali for permission to object to claims it believes are duplicated, already satisfied or otherwise resolved.

Ron Low, a PG&E spokesman, said Wednesday the utility has found billions of dollars of claims filed against it that are unsubstantiated or duplicated. Though about $44 billion in claims were filed against it, PG&E believes it owes roughly $13 billion to its creditors, Low said.

Roughly 80 percent of the 12,800 claims filed against PG&E are for amounts less than or near $100,000. Starting the settlement of these claims could help the utility emerge from bankruptcy more quickly, Low said.

PG&E is asking Montali’s permission to resolve several types of claims without having to seek review and approval afterward from either the official committee of creditors or Montali himself.

The utility also wants to bypass review of settlements it reaches with some larger creditors who claim they are owed more than $100,000, but less than $5 million

PG&E would pay any settlements reached after its plan of reorganization goes into effect, Low said. Claims not settled between the parties would be resolved in court.

Low said the creditors committee agrees with the proposals. A representative of that committee did not immediately return calls seeking comment Wednesday.

PG&E filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection April 6 after a rate freeze prevented it from passing along soaring energy costs to its customers, pushing the utility into debt.

SACRAMENTO — Bryan Woodbury may have a solution for motorists who are tired of urban gridlock: A car that can zip through traffic like a motorcycle and squeeze into the smallest parking spaces.

Woodbury’s 38-inch-wide Tango was among dozens of electric and low-emission vehicles on display Wednesday, about a year before state regulations will put thousands of such cars and light trucks on the California market.

“California is pushing this whole thing,” said Shane Thompson, sales representative for Inmetco, a battery recycling company. “It’s the reason these car companies are coming out with these things.”

Thompson and Woodbury were exhibitors at an Electric Vehicle Association of the Americas conference that gave big and small manufacturers the chance to show off an array of electric, hybrid and futuristic fuel-cell vehicles, ranging from bicycles to buses.

Alan Lloyd, chairman of the state Air Resources Board, said the display “demonstrates that when the industry is challenged they do a wonderful job of stepping forward.”

Regulations adopted by the ARB will require that an increasing percentage of new cars and light trucks sold in California must be zero-emission or extremely low-polluting vehicles, beginning with 2003 models.

The mandate starts at 10 percent and increases to 16 percent by 2018, although manufacturers have several ways they can initially reduce the requirement, including putting the cars on the market early.

Small manufacturers like Woodbury’s company aren’t covered by the mandate, but they can benefit by selling credits for complying with the requirements to bigger car companies.

Major automakers fought the requirements for years and succeeded in convincing the ARB to water down — but not abandon — the regulations.

One company, General Motors, is still fighting the regulations in court, although it was among the conference’s exhibitors.

But another major automaker, Toyota, announced Wednesday that it would get a jump on the regulations and begin selling or leasing its RAV4-EV, a battery-powered sports utility vehicle, to California motorists starting in February. The RAV4-EV has been available only as a corporate fleet vehicle.

Woodbury, who runs Commuter Cars Corp., a small Spokane, Wash., company with his father, plans to start producing the battery-powered Tangos in June.

The narrow car can comfortably carry two people, one behind the other, and can go from zero to 60 mph in four seconds, he said.

“It looks tiny and cramped but you have the same interior space (per passenger) as a normal car.”

Initially prices will range from $40,000 to $75,000 but mass production would drop the cost to the $12,000-to-$17,000 range, depending on how many are made, Woodbury said.

He figures the Tango will attract customers who are “sick and tired of getting stuck in traffic every day but want an exciting car. ... It’s not another golf cart.”

Dust and fumes from the rumbling interchange — and from the big rigs using the predominantly Latino school’s Boyle Heights neighborhood as a short cut — are among many signs around California that the state’s air quality is full of inequality.

Activists have long complained that low-income and minority communities bear a disproportionately large share of the pollution burden. Now their calls for “environmental justice” could be heeded as never before.

The state Air Resources Board — the most influential state-level, air-quality agency in the country — is set to vote Thursday on a policy that would require it to fully consider how every decision it makes affects low-income and minority neighborhoods.

The board, which regulates emissions of everything from gasoline to adhesives, also would conduct monitoring and research to better define how communities are sickened by multiple sources of pollution.

“This goes a long way toward leading the way for other California agencies, and hopefully other states,” said Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh, D-Los Angeles, who co-wrote legislation calling on state agencies to put environmental justice policies in place.

Margarita Sanchez, a community activist who lives across the street from Soto Elementary School and the freeways, said she hopes the rules will give the concerns of poor communities more credence.

Just after classes let out at the school, scores of children play ball on a concrete playground as freeway traffic buzzes by and tractor trailers cough up soot on surface streets.

It takes about 10 minutes for a visitor to feel his chest tightening and head aching from the pollution. Sanchez, the mother of two grade-schoolers, said ailments from asthma to bloody noses are common among neighborhood children.

After two years of lobbying by residents, school and transportation officials have agreed to build sound walls and limit truck traffic on some surface streets, but Sanchez said more work is needed on both fronts.

“We’re getting some fruits out of the struggle, but it never should have been that hard,” Sanchez said.

Alan C. Lloyd, chairman of the Air Resources Board, said that although the state has made strides in reducing pollutants such as those that produce ozone, poor communities haven’t seen enough of the benefits.

“California (air quality) is much better than it used to be, but when you get down to ground level it’s not that evenly distributed,” said ARB spokesman Jerry Martin. “All Californians have the right to clean air, regardless of whether they live in Beverly Hills or next to a landfill.”

Environmentalists and public health advocates applaud the proposed policy, but about 20 groups are calling on the board to amend it to assure funding for environmental justice work. They also want 12-month deadlines for producing guidelines on how local governments and air districts should consider low-income communities in making decisions on land use and complaint resolution, and evaluating neighborhood pollution problems.

“Our fear is that if the ARB does not allocate resources, this could just become another paper policy that does not materialize into action,” said Bahram Fazeli, staff researcher for Communities for a Better Environment, a Huntington Park-based group.

Air board decisions on how much industrial facilities and motor vehicles can pollute have a great effect on low-income communities. But the board has little direct involvement in one of the highest-profile environmental justice issues — placing and permitting polluters such as power plants in low-income areas.

But Lloyd said the policy will require the agency to provide more research and advice to the local governments and air districts that do make those decisions.

How the air board will pay for additional work focused on low-income and minority communities is unclear. With the state facing a projected $12.4 billion deficit this budget year and next, a big jump in air quality funding is unlikely.

“There’s room to do some internal shifting,” said Firebaugh, who has written legislation that would have allowed automakers to escape some impending obligations to produce electric vehicles in exchange for spending money to improve air quality in low-income communities.

Firebaugh supports work to advance zero-emission vehicles, which air regulators say will be necessary as California’s population growth continues.

PALO ALTO — Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon said Wednesday that big school districts like the one in Los Angeles should be broken up, and he suggested offering some form of vouchers to students at underperforming schools.

In a lunchtime speech to 60 technology executives in a Chinese restaurant in Palo Alto, Simon also said he would require as many schools as possible to provide child care and after-hours programs, “so we can begin to end the era of the latchkey child.”

Citing the poor physical condition of California schools and their low rankings on standardized tests, Simon said that if “privatizing” schools is not possible, “then let us certainly privatize their thinking.”

That means fixing dilapidated schools quickly, working more closely with parents and breaking large districts into smaller units, he said.

“Big school districts, big school campuses and big school bureaucracies, more often than not, fail,” he said, citing the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest, as an example. “Kids need individual attention and custom-tailored solutions.”

Simon said he would give administrators, teachers and parents a range of choices for how to improve bad schools.

Those options, Simon said, should include sending in a “red team” of state experts; providing what he called “opportunity scholarships” to students; approving new charter schools or bringing in a private company to run the schools in question.

When questioned by reporters after the speech, Simon declined to specify what he meant by “opportunity scholarships,” although many voucher supporters use the two terms interchangeably.

Simon said he supports some aspects of school voucher programs, but he added that he respected California voters’ overwhelming opposition to a voucher proposition in 2000.

Schools should be required to provide morning and afternoon programs to teach music, art and other skills, Simon said, but he declined to suggest how the state could pay for such programs. His press secretary, Bob Taylor, acknowledged that finding money for them would be difficult.

Simon, a Los Angeles businessman and former federal prosecutor, is seeking the GOP nomination for governor March 5 against former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and California Secretary of State Bill Jones. The winner will face Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in November.

In earlier speeches, Simon has called for trimming state spending and cutting certain taxes.

Simon’s father, William Simon, was treasury secretary under Presidents Nixon and Ford.

Taylor said Simon will largely fund his campaign himself but will also seek outside donations. When asked if there was a limit to how much Simon would spend, Taylor replied, “Not really.” Simon’s recently filed financial disclosure forms show his fortune is worth at least $22 million and probably much higher, given the forms’ vague disclosure requirements.

SACRAMENTO — The number of anti-Arab hate crimes in California has dropped to about one a day from the nearly 10 a day reported immediately after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the state attorney general said Tuesday.

Incidents reported by six major law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose and Sacramento dropped from 182 in September to 60 in October and 17 in November.

An additional 10 police agencies added to the survey reported 11 crimes in October and four in November.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer called the decline “encouraging,” but said even the smaller numbers show police and community groups need to continue their efforts to protect innocent people who appear to be of Middle Eastern descent.

The six major jurisdictions initially reported 236 crimes targeting Arab-Americans, Muslims, Afghan-Americans, Sikhs, Asians and others mistaken for Arabs or Muslims between Sept. 11 and the end of September – more than 12 a day.

However, those initial figures were reduced once police sorted out actual crimes from other incidents that didn’t rise to that level, said Lockyer spokeswoman Sandra Michioku.

Also Tuesday, Lockyer announced the creation of a California Community Relations Service to help mediate resolutions to community conflicts relating to race, color or national origin.

Michioku said the service may help resolve anti-Arab conflicts in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The service will help at the request of local governments or community leaders, or when there is evidence of community unrest. The California service is patterned on a similar federal version created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Immigration authorities arrested 10 people in the San Diego area Wednesday in a first-of-its-kind crackdown on Middle Eastern students suspected of violating the terms of their visas by not being in school.

None of those arrested is suspected of involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks, authorities said.

Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said about 50 people were being sought in San Diego area.

The crackdown is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, Mack said. It is part of the agency’s attempt to better track foreign students after it was revealed that one of the Sept. 11 terrorists, Saudi native Hani Hanjour, had entered the country as a student.

Authorities began compiling a database of the nearly 600,000 foreign students at U.S. colleges and universities after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. But that effort languished amid opposition from school officials who believed it would hurt recruitment and be seen as intrusive.

In recent weeks, INS officials in San Diego discussed the issue with representatives of about 35 schools, including the University of California at San Diego. They checked the records of students from certain nations under government scrutiny.

Agents sought Wednesday to interview San Diego-area students born in Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Pakistan, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Yemen. About 90 percent of the students listed in INS records as being at local education institutions were enrolled. About 50 were not.

Agents began the crackdown at 5 a.m., visiting more than a dozen homes in San Diego County. Mack said they arrested 10 men and women, including the brother of one student.

Muslim leaders condemned the roundup as discriminatory.

“This type of activity, people defaulting on their visas, is not particular to the Arab community,” said Mohammed Nasser, the director of the San Diego chapter of the Muslim-American Society. “Many, many people come here from across the world looking for opportunity.”

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gray Davis ordered five state agencies to increase their terrorism preparedness Wednesday at the recommendation of his terrorism task force.

He plans to outline the measures to national Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge during a meeting Thursday in Washington, D.C., where he will seek federal aid for California’s safety measures.

“This is an act of war. I think he’s going to be pretty aggressive in seeking reimbursement,” said George Vinson, Davis’ special security adviser.

“It’s going to be extremely high,” Vinson said, with the California Highway Patrol alone spending as much as $1 million a day above its normal budget during periods of high alert.

At the same time, Davis plans to discuss California’s new “staged alert system” that ranks warnings of terrorist threats based on credibility and helps determine when threats should be made public.

Federal authorities could use the warning system as a model to help them determine whether to make public unsubstantiated rumors or reports, Vinson said.

Davis said the increases in planning and training he ordered from state agencies Wednesday are “designed to make our prevention and response efforts more efficient and effective.”

He told the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to provide counterterrorism training to police, fire and other emergency workers, as well as doctors, hospitals and public health officials.

He ordered the Health and Human Services Agency to plan for long-term crisis counseling for terrorism victims and their families, and to make available mental health, alcohol and drug and other social services.

The same two agencies were directed to develop a registry of medical, public health and scientific experts who could provide information on infectious diseases, biological hazards, poisons and radiation dangers to state and local health officials.

The highway patrol will work with private businesses and consultants, as well the Environmental Protection Agency and health agency, to develop better security at potential targets like nuclear and hazardous waste facilities.

And the Department of Information Technology was ordered to review the state’s vulnerability to cyberterrorism annually.

The recommendations came from the State Strategic Committee on Terrorism Davis established two months ago, a month after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The committee is made up of more than 150 local, state and federal law enforcement, fire, health and other officials.

LOS ANGELES — The chairman of the Jewish Defense League was charged Wednesday with plotting to blow up a Los Angeles-area mosque and the office of an Arab-American congressman.

Irv Rubin, 56, and a member of the militant group, Earl Krugel, 59, both of Los Angeles, were arrested late Tuesday after five pounds of explosive powder — the last component of the bomb — were delivered to Krugel’s home by a federal informant who was a longtime JDL member, authorities said at a news conference.

Other bomb components and weapons were seized at Krugel’s home, U.S. Attorney John S. Gordon said at a news conference.

“Last night’s arrests confirm that we meant what we said: if you cross the line from lawfully expressing your political or religious belief to committing violent acts ... then you will likely end up facing federal prosecution,” Gordon said.

Rubin and Krugel were due in court Wednesday to face charges of conspiracy to destroy a building by means of an explosive, which carries a maximum five-year sentence, and possession of a destructive device related to a crime of violence, which carries a 30-year mandatory sentence.

Rubin’s wife, Shelley, said authorities are “going on a witch hunt against Jews to show that they’re even-handed towards Muslims.”

“I’m in agony for my husband. He’s been incarcerated for something he hasn’t done,” she said from the doorway of her Monrovia home.

“Irv Rubin never had anything to do with explosives,” said Rubin’s attorney, Peter Morris. “It seems to us that, given the timing ... the government’s action is part of an overreaction to the Sept. 11 events.”

In a series of meetings in October, Rubin and Krugel allegedly schemed to bomb the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City and the San Clemente office of Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

During one secretly audiotaped meeting, Krugel allegedly said Arabs “need a wakeup call” and the JDL needed to do something to one of their “filthy” mosques, the affidavit said.

The original target was to be the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles but it was changed last weekend, the document said.

Tajuddin Shuaib, director of the King Fahd Mosque, said he was astonished. No threats were received, he said, to the estimated 1,000 people who have used the mosque to pray during the Ramadan season.

“I can’t understand why people would do such a thing. We are not against Jews. We are not against anybody. We are like any church or synagogue or temple,” Shuaib said.

“This is shocking news to receive. All agree this was an unusual act by a small band” of individuals, Issa, who represents San Diego County, told a news conference in Washington.

With several Jewish lawmakers standing alongside him, Issa said: “Perhaps in another country, we would be adversaries. We’re not going to be divided by ethnic backgrounds.”

Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., said he was “proud to stand shoulder to shoulder” with Issa “to condemn this outrageous act of domestic terrorism.”

The case was broken when an informant who claimed to have committed crimes for the JDL, including planting a bomb at a mosque, contacted an FBI agent on Oct. 18, according to an affidavit. Details were not revealed.

The confidential source said JDL members learned how to build a napalm bomb with Styrofoam, gasoline and an oxygen-breathing apparatus. The person also was directed to gather information on Islamic religious institutions in Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego.

The JDL supplied the informant with a camera to photograph potential targets and Krugel developed the film, the affidavit alleged. The informant conducted research on the Internet and provided Krugel with directions and backgrounds on potential targets.

At an Oct. 19 meeting, the informant was instructed to place a bomb at the King Fahd Mosque, the affidavit said.

Rubin and Krugel allegedly considered other targets, including a bar and a tattoo parlor they believed were owned by Nazis.

“Rubin stated that it was his desire to blow up an entire building but that the JDL did not have the technology to accomplish such a bombing,” the affidavit said. “Rubin also said that the JDL should not go after a human target because they still had not heard the end of the Alex Odeh incident.”

Odeh, regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, was killed by a bomb at his Santa Ana office in 1985.

The JDL was suspected but no arrests were made. The FBI investigation remains open and there is a $1 million reward for information leading to conviction.

Aslam Abdullah, editor of Minaret, a Muslim magazine that shares offices with the MPAC, called the plot an attack on democracy.

“Terrorism is not the monopoly of any religion,” he said. “This is an attack on pluralism ... we should fight it together.”

The JDL opposes what it considers threats to the Jewish people, whether from Arabs, evangelizing Christians or pro-peace Jews. It claims about 13,000 members but some experts estimate there are only a few dozen active members.

“They’re extremists. They really have been marginalized. None of the credible (Jewish) groups would have anything to do with these people,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

Originally formed by Meir Kahane to mount armed response to anti-Semitic acts in New York City, it gained notoriety when its members were linked to bombings, most of them aimed at Soviet targets in retaliation for the way that country treated its Jewish population.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Fewer people than expected have signed up for the state’s medical-marijuana program.

About 100 people applied to use the drug for medical purposes in the registry’s first six months. Officials had predicted 600 to 800 people would apply in the first year.

The voter-approved measure took effect June 1 and allows patients who register with the state Department of Public Health and Environment to have a maximum of 2 ounces of marijuana, or six plants.

Registry administrator Gail Kelsey said a similar registry in Oregon attracted more patients after the first six months as people became more familiar and comfortable with program.

In Colorado, the medical condition most commonly reported by applicants has been severe pain. About 70 percent of applicants have been male. So far, three people were denied because their applications were incomplete, Kelsey said.

Twenty-four counties are represented on the confidential registry, she said.

Physician certification has come from 76 doctors.

The medical-marijuana law is opposed by Gov. Bill Owens and Attorney General Ken Salazar. They have urged federal prosecutors to pursue anyone who sells, distributes or grows marijuana, even if they qualify for medical use under the state program.

SAN FRANCISCO — California power regulators are allowing the nation’s largest natural gas utility to sell customers space on its intrastate pipelines, mimicking a system already in place on pipelines that carry natural gas into the state.

But critics fear it will allow fewer companies to control most of the pipeline space — and that energy prices could increase if demand leaps because of chilly weather, or if gas-fired power plants need to churn out more electricity.

The state Public Utilities Commission voted 3-2 on Tuesday to approve the proposal, which allows Southern California Gas Co. to sell space on its “backbone” transmission pipelines.

These pipelines carry natural gas flowing into California to a smaller distribution system that then transports it to homes, businesses, factories and power plants.

Under the order, power sellers and SoCal Gas customers will bid to buy pipeline space, with preference to those who hope to reserve that space for the longest time.

Customers also will be able to trade that space and any space they’ve reserved in which to store extra gas. This enables them to accumulate more than the 30 percent of pipeline space allowed to them under the PUC order.

Denise King, a SoCal Gas spokeswoman, said residential and small business customers will not see their 2002 bills rise because the utility has reserved enough space for the gas they will use.

The new system will allow customers to better control the point from which their gas arrives, and help them save money by selling or trading away space they don’t need, she said.

But critics worry that customers could end up paying high prices to ship gas through the Southern California pipelines — just as happened last winter on interstate lines bringing gas to the area.

The two PUC commissioners who opposed the plan argued that opening up the pipeline could lead to one company taking too much control.

They said the large amount of interstate pipeline space owned by El Paso Corp. this year and last pushed California natural gas prices through the roof.

Residents paid $6.6 billion for natural gas in 1999, $12.3 billion last year and had paid $7.9 billion through March 2001, according to a state Assembly report.

“It just opens up one more avenue where people can try to buy up a large percentage of pipeline space, except this time on the intrastate portion rather than the interstate portion,” said Marcel Hawiger, an analyst with The Utility Reform Network, a San Francisco-based consumer advocacy group that opposes the plan.

While the order will not affect residential and small business customers of SoCal Gas directly in 2002, it eventually could translate into higher electricity costs because many power plants are fueled by natural gas, Hawiger said. Any cost increases likely would be passed along to consumers.

Carl Wood, a PUC commissioner, said he opposed the order because it was based on information gathered before natural gas prices soared last winter.

“I don’t think this is the time to be radically remaking the structure of natural gas regulation without understanding the world of 2002. This is not the world of 1998,” Wood said.

Commissioner Richard Bilas praised the order, and said it should make gas operations in Southern California more efficient since customers only will pay for services they actually use.

SAN FRANCISCO — State regulators say that Pacific Bell takes too long to repair telephone lines, and are threatening to fine the telecommunications company $600,000 per month unless it improves.

The state Public Utilities Commission also ruled Tuesday that Pac Bell must remind customers calling for repairs that they can ask for a four-hour window for a repair visit, rather than potentially waiting an entire day for a technician.

The average number of hours Pac Bell customers had to wait to have a dial tone restored rose by 45 percent between 1996 and 2000, the PUC found.

The commission ruled that violates the state Public Utilities Code and a PUC order that requires Pac Bell to maintain or improve customer service over the five years following its merger with San Antonio-based SBC Communications, Inc.

The PUC ordered Pac Bell to repair phone lines within 29 hours from when a customer first reports trouble, or within 39 hours for a repeat problem. The PUC vowed to fine the company $300,000 each month it exceeds one of the standards, or double if it exceeds both.

The Office of Ratepayer Advocates, the consumer advocacy arm of the PUC, brought the complaints against Pac Bell.

Pac Bell Spokesman John Britton said the company has been well within the new targets in recent months, and that the company’s numbers can jump in any particular year if telephone lines are downed by bad weather or fire.

SAN JOSE — Chip equipment maker Applied Materials Inc. said Wednesday it will cut 1,700 positions, or 10 percent of its work force, in response to the downturn in the semiconductor industry.

The global cuts are the latest move by Applied to save money as demand for its equipment has diminished. The company previously reduced salaries, restricted hiring and ordered mandatory days off.

“Unfortunately, the continuing downturn requires us to make some tough decisions to align our operations with current levels of demand for semiconductor equipment,” said James Morgan, Applied’s chief executive.

Employees will be notified starting Thursday. About 450 positions in the Silicon Valley and 600 jobs in the Austin, Texas, area will be affected.

Santa Clara-based Applied will post a restructuring charge for its first fiscal quarter, which ends Jan. 27.

Applied shares closed up 93 cents to $44.87 in Tuesday trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. After hours, they fell 42 cents.

SAN JOSE — SONICblue Inc. said it filed a patent infringement suit against rival TiVo Inc. on Wednesday, bringing to court their fight for licensing claims of digital video recorder technologies.

DVRs, which record television shows on a hard drive and can pause live programming, promised to revolutionize the way people watch TV when first introduced in 1999. Though consumers have been slow to adopt the new technology, analysts still predict it will take off one day.

Both Silicon Valley-based companies won patents this year for various fundamental DVR technologies. SONICblue filed suit in federal court in San Jose after it said licensing talks with TiVo failed.

“TiVo basically has three choices — partner with us, license our (intellectual property), or get sued by us,” said Ken Potashner, SONICblue’s chief executive and chairman.

TiVo officials denied the two companies have engaged in licensing discussions and responded: “We are disappointed that SONICblue is opting to use litigation to build visibility for its company, as opposed to constructively working with others in the industry to build its business. We intend to take appropriate and rational legal steps to protect our technology.”

SONICblue, meanwhile, claims its products do not infringe on TiVo’s patents.

SONICblue also faces a suit by major U.S. television networks and their parent companies, which claim the new ReplayTV 4000 DVR violates their copyrights because the device allows users to e-mail recorded programs to each other.

A registered nurse at Alta Bates/Summit Medical Center, Emmet Curry says he sometimes fears for the safety of his patients when staffing is low.

Curry joined colleagues from the California Nurses Association Tuesday outside Alta Bates on Ashby Avenue – and others at 100 hospitals around the state – to educate the public on what CNA says is a need for higher staff-to-patient ratios.

The CNA already received a part of what it wanted: AB 394.

Approved by the legislature and signed by the governor more than a year ago, the law calls for fixed staff-to-patient ratios – but those numbers have yet to be decided.

By Jan. 1, the state will publish proposed ratios. A series of public hearings will follow during a span of 45 days and then the final ratios will be written into law.

The mandatory ratios will be a first for this country, said Liz Jacobs, a registered nurse and communications specialist for the CNA.

Jacobs said inadequate staffing and subsequent overwork are some of the main causes for nurses to leave the profession.

Alta Bates spokesperson Carolyn Kemp argued that the staffing should be based on the need of the “acuity of the patient,” rather than fixed by category (critical care, burn, operating room).

Jacobs pointed out that today’s patients are all in need of more care than in the past because they are sicker. In the past, when patients were not removed early from hospitals by insurance companies, there was a period of time when nursing levels could safely decrease, she said. But now, she said, everyone in the hospital needs a more intense level of care.

Kemp argued that the low level of staffing is a function of a scarcity of nurses.

“No matter what the ratios (in the law) are, we can’t do it,” Kemp said. “There is a nursing shortage.”

But Jacobs pointed to “stressful conditions” as the underlying reason for the shortage.

“Sometimes you’re by yourself,” said RN Curry, “Patients are all in bed, they have to have baths, you have to feed them and turn them every two hours.”

Then there’s charting each patient and “carrying out the doctors’ orders.”

Three of Curry’s colleagues, also Alta Bates’ nurses, stood around him outside the hospital and chimed in.

“I didn’t take lunch today,” said Robert Abelon.

Cindy Kleinsasser did: “I sit and eat and chart,” she said of her lunch breaks.

“That’s what I do,” agreed Maryanne Sanchez.

Curry said the nurses are lucky if they get away from the nurses station at all.

“They call us (when we are) in the bathroom,” Sanchez added.

But the push for a higher staff-to-patient ratio is not only to reduce the nurses’ stress, it’s for patients, says CNA President Kay McVay, also a registered nurse.

When you’re sick and in bed “you’re there at the mercy of anything going on,” she said, explaining why the nurses’ goal for the day was to educate the public about the situation.

Nurse Robert Abelon said he no longer has the time to educate patients about their illness and home care before they leave. This, combined with too-short hospital stays, means a patient ends up coming back to the hospital more frequently.

Kemp said the CNA’s argument that the staffing ratios are unsafe is “absolutely untrue. The hospital does not want to do anything unsafe for its patients,” she said.

Moreover, she contended that the CNA was acting prematurely.

“The wisest thing is to wait and see what (the rules) propose. No one knows what they will be.”

Guy Poole

Wednesday December 12, 2001

Wednesday, Dec. 12

Hawaiian Festival

1:15 p.m.

North Berkeley Senior Center

1901 Hearst Ave.

Dancers, music and refreshments. 644-6343

Lecture Series on Women

Medieval Mystics

7:30 - 9 p.m.

All Souls Parish

2220 Cedar St.

Three Women Mystics: An Advent Lecture Series. Exploration of their spiritual quests designed to offer a new sense of spiritual possibilities in modern times. Free. Supervised childcare will be provided. 848-1755.

Near Death Experience

Support Group

7 - 9 p.m.

Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Church

1606 Bonita Ave.

International Association of Near-Death Studies offers an open, sharing, and supportive environment for the exploration of Near Death Experiences.

Commission on Aging

1:30 p.m.

South Berkeley Senior Center

2939 Ellis St.

Proposal for COA co-sponsorship of conference on future special transportation of seniors and people with disabilities with the City of Oakland, the Paratransit Advisory and Planning Committee PAPCO, the Commission on Disabilities and possibly the Alameda County Transportation Improvement Authority (ACTIA).

Chuck Collingwood and Martin Thomas present a slide lecture on the essentials for surviving overnight in the snow and discuss the basics for safe and enjoyable ski or snowshoe travel. 527-4140

Simplicity Forum

7 - 8:30 p.m.

Claremont Branch Library

2940 Benvenue Ave.

Monthly meeting that features people telling stories about the ways they have changed their lives by finding ways to work less, consume less. 549-3509, www.seedsofsimplicity.org.

Gaia Building Open House

Benefit

4 - 8 p.m.

The Gaia Building, 7th Floor

2116 Allston Way

The Gaia Building, a residential housing project, celebrates its opening with an open house to benefit the Berkeley Emergency Food and Housing Project. $10, sliding scale. 883-1000, panoramicinterests.com.

Community Health

Commission

6:45 - 9:30 p.m.

South Berkeley Senior Center

2939 Ellis St.

The commission agenda includes increased funding for Public Health Infrastructure. 644-6109, phd@ci.berkeley.ca.us.

Housing Advisory Commission

7:30 p.m.

South Berkeley Senior Center

2939 Ellis St.

Discussion and final action of $1.4 million proposal by Affordable Housing Associates for new construction of 38 rental units for seniors at 2517 Sacramento St., Outback Senior Homes.

Friday, Dec. 14

Partial-Solar Eclipse Viewing

11 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Lawrence Hall of Science

Centennial Dr., just above UC Berkeley Campus

Telescopes and specially designed sun-spotters will be set up for safe viewing of the partial eclipse. $3 - $7. 642-5132, www.lawrencehallofscience.org

Sabrina Keys remembered receiving her first three form letters from college basketball programs when she was in the eighth grade. Her first hand-written letter came as the Berkeley High basketball standout started her sophomore season. Since then it’s been a steady stream of letters, visits to college campuses and, as Keys estimated, conversations with more than 50 schools.

“I can’t even tell you where that first letter was from,” said Keys, who last month committed to Purdue for the 2002-03 season. “They all send so much information.”

With college plans now finalized, the ’Jackets’ 6-foot-1 senior forward can devote her full attention to leading one of Northern California’s top girls’ basketball teams, which has competed in the state championship game the last two seasons. Berkeley lost to Narbonne High 48-45 in last year’s final – the second straight year the Harbor City-based Gauchos defeated the ’Jackets in the title game at ARCO Arena in Sacramento.

“We basically won that game,” Keys said, referring to last year’s contest. “But with 18 seconds left and the game tied, the referee called a cheap offensive foul. It was like the game was stripped from us.”

Listening to Keys talk, it’s obvious that the disappointing loss is still fresh in the team’s collective mind, possibly providing an extra bit of motivation to help Berkeley clear that final hurdle this season.

“We’re going to take it this year,” she said emphatically.

As the tallest player on the ’Jackets’ team last season, Keys retained her familiar position in the post and helped the ’Jackets compile a 27-6 record by averaging 15 points and 10 rebounds per game. This season, however, Berkeley welcomed 6-foot-3 freshman Devanei Hampton to bump and bang inside.

“I’ve been helping her out on defense,” Keys said. “She reminds me of myself a lot, but taller. She’s very aggressive and is playing really well.”

Keys moved to the power forward spot to make room for Hampton and can now utilize her dribbling ability and drive to the basket or pop a shot from the outside.

While Hampton gives Berkeley added height, the ’Jackets also need to fill the hole left by Robin Roberson, last year’s leading scorer who graduated and now plays for the Arizona Wildcats. As a senior, Keys will be counted on to keep the team dominant.

“Fundamentally (Keys’) game is very sound,” said Berkeley coach Gene Nakamura. “She’s also a warrior. She’ll go out and battle and isn’t afraid to get physical.”

Keys’ ultimate plan is to have her game mimic that of her favorite player: Los Angeles Lakers center Shaquille O’Neal.

“I love how aggressive and how powerful he is,” Keys said, who like Shaq, dons jersey No. 34. “If I was dunking I would do it like him. He’s just so big and unstoppable. I plan on being like that one day – unstoppable.”

Keys traced her aggressive roots on the court to the fourth grade. Without a girls’ basketball team, the elementary school boys’ coach recruited her to play on his team. At the time Keys was the tallest girl at her school, but she still gave up some height to a handful of her new teammates.

“I played on the all-boys team in the fourth and fifth grades,” Keys said. “I think that’s what got me so aggressive. I was out there yelling and playing like a boy.”

While merely a sixth-grader, Keys played on a summer travel team made up of high school sophomores and juniors.

“I was horrible when I played on that team,” Keys said. “My parents used to come to games and wonder what I was doing. I was really bad, but I got better because I played (with older players).”

Indeed, she got much better. Heavily recruited by schools in the Pac-10, Big-10 and several other conferences, Keys found she could write her own collegiate ticket.

“I had offers to go just about anywhere,” Keys said. “I knew that I didn’t want to play in the Pac-10. That’s just not my style of ball.”

The Pac-10, she said, characteristically showcases athletic guards rather than power forwards and centers. As such, Keys said that the conference tends to “call every little foul” and doesn’t let the bigger bodies play their game.

“I want to bang inside,” she said.

So the San Francisco native signed with Big 10 powerhouse Purdue, not only because the school suited her style of play, but also because Keys admired the coaching staff.

“They were the only ones I could communicate with as if they were friends,” she said. “I wanted to go somewhere that made me feel like it was a home.”

A successful basketball program didn’t hurt either. Purdue, which won the national title in 1999, finished last season with a 31-7 record before losing to Notre Dame, 68-66, in the final. The Boilermakers are ranked No. 7 this season.

“I think I would have chosen them because of their coaches even if they weren’t champions,” Keys said. “I’m not saying I would have gone there if they were horrible, but probably if they were just an OK team.”

Nakamura, who has coached Keys since her freshman year, described his star forward as an “all-around player” who has worked hard on improving her offense this season.

“She’s always been a great post defender,” he said, “but now she’s increased her shooting range and is driving to the basket better. She’s a very versatile player.”

And as for overall talent?

“She’s right up there,” Nakamura said. “I’ve had a lot of good post players, but Sabrina is as tough as anyone and plays as hard as anyone. She’s just a joy to coach.”

The Lawrence Berkeley Lab has been stating to the public, the Berkeley City Council, and the media that the National Tritium Labeling Facility has been shut down as of December 6, 2001. It is my understanding that the Lawrence Berkeley Lab has been actively seeking a new life under the Department of Energy without notifying the public, the City Council or the Community Environmental Advisory Commission. I understand that the Lawrence Berkeley Lab has filed lengthy documents with another agency to be permitted to treat and dispose of mixed waste generated by activities at the National Tritium Facility. We do not want tritium contaminated materials burned or otherwise treated in this community.

This seems to be the usual deceptive, destructive, manipulative, macho cowboy way the Lawrence Berkeley Lab has operated in the past, with the collusion of the University of California.

From a recent article on the Tritium Labeling Facility closure in “Science” journal (v. 294, Nov. 2, 2001, p. 977-8), it is clear that Elmer Grossman, the Chair of the CEAC, is now representing himself as the spokesman for the Lawrence Berkeley Lab and the University of California. His statements do not represent the viewpoint of the Berkeley City Council which twice voted to close the facility, nor of the CEAC where it was never discussed nor a vote taken on what statements Grossman should be making as chair. Why is he making statements to the media which support LBNL actions which endanger public health? After all, he is a medical doctor. At the last CEAC meeting on Nov. 1, his designated replacement, Mr. Simon MD, told me that tritium is not a dangerous substance and that there was too much concern about it.

It is obvious that both Grossman and Simon, as members of the medical profession, should be telling people the truth. It is simple to open a physics or chemistry handbook and understand the danger to living systems that radioactive hydrogen poses.

In addition, in documents filed with the city clerk, Mr. Robert Clear does not state his employer nor job description, but gives a Lawrence Berkeley National Lab phone number as his work number. If Mr. Clear is an employee of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab this information should be added to his CEAC paperwork and he should not be voting on the CEAC on issues concerning the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.

It is obvious that the CEAC has been infiltrated by the Lawrence Berkeley Lab, and that the statements of Grossman and documents secretly filed to extend the life of the Tritium Labeling Facility have compromised the effectiveness of the CEAC and exposed the collusion of the University of California in proposed activities which will endanger public health.

The public citizens, Berkeley City Council, the Community Environmental Advisory Commission, and the media deserve some answers with regard to implementation of your three- phase closure plan.

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. 239-2252 www.acteva.com/go/havefun

“The Whole World’s Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960s and 1970s” Through Dec. 16: A documentary photo exhibition which examines the rich history of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Wed. - Sun., noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., Live Oak Park. Free. 644-6893

“Images of Innocence and Beauty” Dec. 19 through Jan. 8: An exhibit featuring Kathleen Flannigan’s drawing and furniture - boxes, tables, and mirrors, all embellished with images of the beauty and innocence of the natural world. Addison Street Windows, 2018 Addison St.

“Ansel Adams in the University of California Collections” Dec. 12 through Mar. 10: A selection of photographs and memorabilia presenting a different perspective on Adam’s career as one of the leading figures in American photography. Wed, Fri. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thur. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. $4- $6. University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” Masterworks by Guy Colwell Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9 2028 Ninth St. 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot by 40 foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Mon. through Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu

A Berkeley police officer has filed a complaint against the city claiming that a supervising officer subjected her to a pattern of sexual harassment and on-the-job discrimination based on her gender.

In closed session Tuesday, the city upheld the claim, demoted the officer and agreed to pay the victim $25,000, according to a source who asked for anonymity.

The claim alleges that eight-year veteran Sgt. Tom Jeremiason subjected Officer Jennifer Hall to emotional distress, sexual harassment and employment discrimination based on her gender during a three-month period beginning in January.

The claim also alleges that police department officials were aware of Jeremiason’s behavior but failed to take appropriate action to prevent it. According to the claim, Jeremiason was in fact transferred from the division for unspecified reasons on March 29.

Police spokesperson Lt. Cynthia Harris said earlier on Tuesday that the department could not comment on the case because of the pending claim, but that both Jeremiason and Hall are still on active duty.

Deputy City Attorney Sarah Reynoso, handling the case for the city, did not return calls to the Daily Planet regarding the complaint.

Hall’s attorney James Chanin, who filed the claim against the city for unspecified damages above $10,000 last May, declined to discuss the case during the day on Tuesday, before it went to the council closed session.

Hall, who completed her department probationary period in December, 1999, alleges that on at least nine different occasions, Jeremiason made sexually explicit comments either directly to her or in her presence. The comments were mostly made while one or both of them were on duty.

According to the complaint, Jeremiason called Hall at home using a work-related pretense while he was on duty, but then admitted “I called you so you could talk dirty to me.” On another occasion, the claim alleges, Jeremiason told Hall, who had laryngitis at the time, that her voice was “sexy” and asked for a tape recording of her repeating the phrases “oh baby” and “oh Tom.”

Jeremiason also discussed women he was dating and other female police officers with Hall despite her objections. On one occasion Jeremiason allegedly told Hall that he had assigned a female police officer, who he thought was “frigid,” to a particularly dangerous duty hoping that “someone would slug her in the face and (she) would quit the department.”

Hall alleges that Jeremiason began to behave in a hostile and unprofessional manner towards her beginning sometime in February. According to the claim, Jeremiason asked Hall to “set him up” with a friend and specified he didn’t mean with “a lesbian.”

On March 11, both Hall and Jeremiason separately responded to a hit and run incident in west Berkeley. According to the claim, Hall and Jeremiason disagreed about whether one of the vehicles involved in the incident should be impounded. Somehow Jeremiason got the impression that Hall had “gone over his head” and consulted a lieutenant, which she hadn’t.

Jeremiason became upset and pulled her aside by grabbing her arm in front of witnesses. He then began yelling and accused her of insubordination and commented that she had been ignoring him.

After that incident, Hall complained to senior officers about Jeremiason ’s behavior and was told that an Internal Affairs investigation had been initiated.

According to Hall’s claim, Jeremiason retaliated by trying to embarrass her in front of other officers during an official briefing that was attended by Hall’s patrol team.

Hall claims it was suggested on at least three occasions by high ranking officers that she transfer to another duty. She refused claiming that she had done nothing wrong and that Jeremiason should be transferred.

On March 29 Capt. William Pittman announced that Jeremiason had been transferred, but did not specify for what reasons.

The Berkeley Daily Planet received a copy of this letter addressed to the mayor and Berkeley City Council:

Berkeley Design Advocates recently sent you copies of a report with recommendations for the proposed new General Plan and the Housing Element. BDA is a public service organization of design and planning professionals, affordable housing, environmental and neighborhood advocates, architectural historians, construction and development business persons and others interested in good design and the future environmental quality of life in Berkeley. Our report is based upon our study of the Draft General Plan. It recognizes the critical need for effective housing policies in Berkeley. As you make your decisions on changes and additions to the Plan, we urge you to strengthen the final document to achieve a Plan that reflects Berkeley’s commitment to progressive change. This letter summarizes the key points in our report and emphasizes the areas where the plan needs further improvement.

The Draft Plan is a conservative document, focused on maintaining the status quo. It needs a larger vision of Berkeley’s role in meeting the needs of local and regional population growth, including policies and actions that will add housing and enable more people to enjoy living and working in Berkeley.

1. Add policies supporting more housing for all income groups. Clear policies are required to support, permit and encourage higher levels of housing development for all income groups in Berkeley to preserve regional agriculture and open space and to reduce commuting distances, traffic congestion and pollution.

2. Identify the need for new moderate and middle income housing and add policies and action programs to achieve this.

Berkeley is a job-rich city with an increasing imbalance of housing to jobs. Berkeley must address this problem within Berkeley. The plan needs new policies, specific goals and action steps that support new construction to meet the housing needs of moderate and middle income people, such as teachers, firepersons, librarians, city and university staff.

Actions to encourage the private sector to build middle income housing should include: higher density zoning and specific zoning standards, through-block zones along commercial corridors, minimum height requirements and required mixed uses with housing downtown and on major thoroughfares, use of public land for high density projects.

The goal for 6,400 units of housing for low and very low income people is a major improvement over the earlier drafts. The plan and implementation strategies should support non-profit acquisition and management of existing housing as the most effective way to achieve this goal.

4. Support new development in selected areas Plan policies should support significant change and higher densities in areas of the city that will be improved by new development. The action program should direct the Planning Commission to identify and rezone specific areas where the scale and context are ready for change; where existing heights and densities are inadequate to attract development, or remain untapped; where the population density is too low to support desirable improvements to public transit systems, where active street life and desirable local serving businesses, successful ground level office and retailing spaces are lacking.

OAKLAND – The Alameda County Board of Supervisors relied on faulty data earlier this year when it voted to build a 420-bed juvenile hall in Dublin, according to a new report by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, an Oakland-based nonprofit with a national reputation on juvenile justice issues.

Community activists opposed to the project, which is currently in the planning stages, praised the nonprofit’s report Tuesday at a press conference in Oakland.

“The numbers are not right, according to the top experts in the country,” said Van Jones, director of Books Not Bars, a San Francisco-based advocacy group, “and it’s time to shut (the project) down.”

The NCCD report alleges that a 1998 study, prepared for the county by Rosser International of Atlanta, Ga., erred when it projected growth in youth detention rates. The inflated figures, the report contends, provided false justification for the large number of beds in the proposed facility.

The current juvenile hall, an aging 299-bed facility in San Leandro, holds young people younger than age 18 awaiting trial. In many cases, the detention center also holds young people who have already been through trial and are waiting for placement in a group home or other program.

Rosser officials would not comment on the council’s report. But Supervisor Gail Steele, who voted for the new juvenile hall, dismissed the group’s criticism. Steele said the 1998 Rosser study, and a 1991 report before it, may have projected slightly inflated detention rates. But, she said, the errors are not significant enough to justify a wholesale re-evaluation of the supervisors’ decision.

“I do not think the studies are fundamentally flawed,” Steele said, predicting that the construction of the new $117 million detention hall, part of a larger $176 million Dublin complex approved by the Board of Supervisors, will go ahead as planned.

The county is currently preparing an Environmental Impact Report for the complex. The county is scheduled to complete construction in September 2005.

Activists have argued that the proposed juvenile hall is much too large for the area, saying it would rival the 498-bed facility in Chicago’s Cook County, which contains 5 million citizens, compared to Alameda County’s 1.4 million.

They have also argued that the hall would be too remote from urban areas, making it difficult for parents to travel to the facility.

Rachel Jackson, state field director for Books Not Bars, said the county should build a smaller hall, with about 250 beds, in Oakland.

Jackson also said the county should focus on expediting young people through the justice system, and developing alternatives to detention to cut down on any overcrowding at the juvenile hall.

“The county is choosing to invest in incarceration,” said Jackson, “and detention is actually harmful. It’s harmful to the youth themselves, and it’s harmful to public safety.” Jackson said exposure to criminals only encourages unlawful behavior.

Supervisor Keith Carson, who represents Berkeley, also called for a full examination of alternatives to incarceration.

“Today, across the country, there are a number of programs in place that would be better than the first step being juvenile hall,” Carson said. “We need to do an assessment of all the alternatives out there.”

But Steele said it is unrealistic to expect a significant investment in alternatives, given that youth programs have never received heavy funding.

“I have spent a lifetime trying to create programs to keep kids out of the hall,” said Steele. “The funding for intervention programs is like a twinkle in the eye. It has never been there.”

Steele said the projected budget deficit will only make it more difficult to put preventative programs in place. She said the county should, instead, focus on building a new facility while it has the opportunity.

“I choose not to give up on our kids,” Carson responded, when told of Steele’s remarks. But, he said he was not optimistic about the Board of Supervisors reversing course on the new juvenile hall.

Regarding the Dec. 7 article “Protesters Say Hemp is Food Not Drugs.” The banning of hemp food products without involvement from legislators or voters is entirely unfair, and not becoming a government claiming to support “due process” and “checks and balances.”

Will the DEA actually pay any attention to the strong protests of those who make a living off the hemp food industry, or those that consume the products? I doubt it.

Six housing projects for low-income and disabled people will vie for city funding at a special meeting of the Housing Advisory Commission Thursday night.

The city has $1.9 million in its Housing Trust Fund this year. The six requests for HTF money amount to $4.75 million, making the decision on how the funds will be awarded particularly difficult.

“This is one of those times when we have a number of good proposals, and would need more money than we have to move ahead with all of them,” said Steve Barton, the city’s director of housing.

The projects will also be heard at tonight’s Planning Commission meeting. The commission will assess whether any of the proposed projects are likely to run into problems during their permitting and building phases.

Three of those projects are asking for more than $1 million, meaning that only one of them will be funded.

Two of the large projects are for new senior housing.

Affordable Housing Associates is asking for $1.4 million to build “Outback Senior Homes,” a 38-unit development planned for 2517 Sacramento St. It includes 26 low-income apartments for senior citizens.

“We feel our project is the most competitive of the three projects, because it’s the most ready to go,” said AHA’s Kevin Zwick, Outback’s project manager.

Zwick said that the development had already applied for a use permit, and is scheduled to be heard at the Zoning Adjustments Board and the Design Review Committee.

He added that AHA had gone through several rounds of design, and had answered neighbors’ original criticisms of the project.

“This project significantly reduces the height of the building, the density of the project and traffic concerns in neighborhood,” Zwick said.

AHA is promising to repay the loan within 15 years. HTF loans are usually open-ended, as the city only asks grantees for a percentage of profits, if there are any.

Jubilee Restoration and Resources for Community Development are seeking $1.25 million to build “Jubilee Senior Homes,” a 27-unit senior housing complex at 2575 San Pablo Ave.

“We’re confident that our project serves the community,” said Jubilee’s Todd Harvey. “It’s well-designed, and it’s on a major transit corridor, which serves the needs of the elderly.”

Harvey said that minority residents would likely benefit from the project, as there are many low-income, minority senior citizens already living in the west Berkeley neighborhood.

Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency is asking for $1.35 million to build seven new multifamily units and various health and culture facilities at Ursula Sherman Village, 711 Harrison St.

The units are targeted to low-income adults and families and homeless people.

BOSS is also asking for $186,000 to rehabilitate McKinley House, a transitional home for women with children, many of whom are fleeing an abusive spouse.

Two other projects are seeking small grants to help them complete work on projects currently in development.

The group “Berkeley Youth Living with Disabilities” is seeking $65,000 to repay a loan incurred during construction of a 6-bedroom facility for severely disabled children.

Adeline Street Apartments is asking for $332,000 to complete work on its project, which is targeted for physically disabled people and AIDS patients.

The HAC recommendations will be forwarded to the City Council, which is expected to vote on the matter early next year.

The Housing Advisory Commission will meet at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. The Planning Commission will meet at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave., tonight at 7:00 p.m.

Kudos to Berkeley’s Students for Sensible Drug Policy activists for protesting the Drug Enforcement Administration’s ban on hemp products, products that are incapable of getting anyone high. The DEA’s marijuana jihad seems even more absurd when placed in a historical context. Prior to the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 few Americans had heard of marijuana, despite widespread cultivation of its non-intoxicating cousin, industrial hemp.

The first marijuana laws were a racist reaction to Mexican immigration during the early 1900’s, passed in large part due to newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst’s sensationalist yellow journalism. Incredibly violent acts were allegedly committed by minorities under marijuana’s influence. White Americans did not even begin to smoke marijuana until a soon-to-be entrenched government bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda.

These days marijuana is confused with 60’s counterculture. This intergenerational culture war does far more harm than marijuana. Illegal marijuana provides the black market contacts that introduce consumers to hard drugs like meth. This “gateway” is the direct result of a fundamentally flawed policy. As long as marijuana distribution remains in the hands of organized crime, consumers will continue to be exposed to sellers of hard drugs. Taxing and regulating the sale of marijuana to adults is a cost-effective alternative to the $50 billion war on some drugs.

At present the drug war is causing tremendous societal harm, while failing miserably at preventing use. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. In terms of addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn’t fight crime, it fuels crime. Students who want to make a difference should contact Students for Sensible Drug Policy at http://www.ssdp.org.

Josh Daniels, a junior at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., has been selected to be the head resident of The Butterfield, a Residence Hall for the 2001-2002 academic year.

Daniels, a graduate of Berkeley High School, is the son of Joan Daniels and is a resident of Berkeley, according to a Wesleyan press release.

The head residents are experienced, student residential staff, who are specifically trained to deal effectively with issues of student life and residence-hall administration. Each head resident, who supervises a staff of resident advisers, is responsible for the quality of life in the assigned residential area in which they reside. If a resident experiences a problem requiring more skilled intervention, the HR will provide the necessary assistance.

Wesleyan enrolls approximately 2,700 undergraduates, who pursue a curriculum in the liberal arts and sciences. Approximately 150 graduate students are enrolled in masters and doctoral programs in sciences, mathematics and ethnomusicology.

Nicholas Yim studies down under

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Nicholas Yim, son of Darrell and Linda Yim of Berkeley, spent the fall of 2001 studying at the James Cook University in Australia as part of the Middlebury College Study Abroad program. Yim is a member of the Middlebury class of 2003.

During each school year, more than half of the college’s junior class participates in study abroad – it is anticipated that nearly 350 Middlebury students will travel to 40 countries and enter 90 different programs and universities this year.

Middlebury encourages students to take part in the study abroad program during their junior year, and the college’s off-campus study office helps them to enroll in schools around the globe for one or two semesters.

Students gain academic credit for successfully completed coursework in the program. They bring back an enhanced international perspective before they graduate with the rest of their classmates upon completion of their remaining senior year, according to a Middlebury press statement.

To be eligible for the study abroad program, students must maintain an overall grade average of B- or better, as well as an average of B or better in the major, proficiency at the advanced level in the language of the country, and a strong academic rationale for studying abroad.

Conscientious objectors will have to wait a while to pass on their information via city wires after the City Council delayed its decision Tuesday on whether or not Berkeley will lend a hand to the group’s cause.

The original proposal called for workers who answer the city’s general information phones to be supplied with material about the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors.

The idea, proposed by the city’s Peace and Justice Commission, was to have information available for people who might call asking about how to avoid military combat.

The commission adopted a resolution earlier this month noting Berkeley’s “unique and honored tradition of promoting alternative social values and viewpoints including nonviolence and pacifism.”

“During this time of military action, especially, we felt it was important that young people, who are of an age to consider enrolling in the military, have the full range of information available to them,” said Commissioner Steve Freedkin.

Freedkin said he doesn’t know of any instances where someone has called the city to ask about avoiding the military, but it would be good for city staff to be prepared.

The item was to have been decided on the “consent calendar,” where issues are agreed upon without discussion. But councilmembers who are part of the moderate faction questioned the item.

“There’s no draft, so there’s no point in being a conscientious objector,” said Councilmember Polly Armstrong.

Councilmember Betty Olds, also a moderate, offered a compromise: Refer people to armed forces recruiting numbers if they want to sign up, she said.

Instead, the council decided to pull the item from the consent calendar and have a more thorough discussion on it at a later meeting.

SACRAMENTO — California had the largest Death Row population of any state, but just nine executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday.

“Our attorneys are frustrated by the pace. Victims throughout the state are incredibly frustrated by the pace,” said Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for state Attorney General Bill Lockyer. “There’s no reason for these cases to take 20 years.”

However, he and death penalty opponents said the pace reflects a deliberate approach that has helped protect California from the sort of highly publicized convictions of innocents that prompted Illinois to declare a moratorium and raised fairness questions in Texas.

“It’s a little bloodthirsty, it seems to me, to suggest that we’re killing people too slowly,” said actor Mike Farrell, president of Death Penalty Focus.

He and other opponents questioned the racial fairness of the death penalty in California and across the nation, along with other regional inequities.

In California, 349 of those awaiting execution were white and 215 black at the end of 2000. Twelve women and 114 Hispanics were on Death Row (the two sets of numbers overlap).

California has the most inmates awaiting execution — 586 at the end of 2000 — mainly because of its massive population, said Frank Zimring, a University of California, Berkeley, law professor who has studied California prisons for more than 20 years.

The state had eight executions from 1977 through 2000, the period covered by the Justice Department report, and added a ninth this year with the execution of Robert Lee Massie.

California’s pace of executions is “quite typical of northern industrial states with big Death Rows,” Zimring said. “Obviously governments and judges are more ambivalent about executions in northern industrial states than they are in the South. ... It’s a startling difference.”

Also slowing down executions in California are a higher concentration of federal judges reluctant to support the death penalty, said Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, who thinks judges are too cautious.

Death penalty appellate attorney Aundre Herron countered that federal judges in particular serve as a vital check on overzealous prosecutors.

“Once these cases are really closely looked at, they don’t pass constitutional muster,” said Herron, who sits on the boards of Death Penalty Focus and the American Civil Liberties Union.

California’s high Death Row population comes, in part, because of hard-line lawmakers and prosecutors, she said. “Almost every murder is death-eligible in this state,” and most prosecutors are reluctant not to seek executions when they can.

SACRAMENTO — California will face a growing shortage of qualified teachers in this decade as older instructors retire in record numbers and schools hire more teachers without preliminary credentials, a study says.

“Many states face shortages of skilled teachers, but none at the scale of California,” says a report released Wednesday by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning.

The nonprofit organization said the state will need to make “significant improvements” in teacher pay and working conditions to eliminate the shortage.

Kerry Mazzoni, Gov. Gray Davis’ education secretary, called the study a “good report,” but said it didn’t reflect recent state efforts to attract, train and retain teachers.

The state’s optimistic its programs will help fix some of the problems in the report, she said, mentioning a $200 million plan that could be used to help attract veteran teachers to low-performing schools.

Last year, 14 percent of the state’s 301,000 public school teachers didn’t have the preliminary teaching credential the state has traditionally said is the minimum requirement to manage a classroom.

The number of teachers without preliminary credentials is projected to reach 21 percent — about 65,000 out of 309,000 instructors — by 2009 as experienced teachers retire or leave the profession, the study said.

Forty percent of the state’s current teachers are at least 50 years old and are approaching retirement age.

California schools have had to depend on some instructors with emergency teaching permits for a number of years, but their use started increasing sharply after 1995, when the state ordered class sizes cut from 30-plus to 20 in the four lowest grades.

The traditional route for most people interested in becoming teachers has been to pass college or university courses and get on-the-job training as a student teacher before taking over a classroom.

Now, however, most new California teachers start work before finishing classes or student teaching, the report said.

As earlier reports have said, those underprepared teachers land most often in schools serving low-income neighborhoods, and the problem is getting worse, the study said.

In nearly half of California schools fewer than 5 percent of the teachers are not fully credentialed and almost a third have no underprepared instructors, according to the report.

But in a quarter of the public schools — mostly schools in urban areas — more than 20 percent of teachers are not fully credentialed.

“When the data are examined by poverty or race or academic achievement, it is starkly apparent that students who are poor, black or Hispanic or who are in low-performing schools have those teachers who are the least prepared by far,” the study said.

The report also found that:

— Support programs available for beginning teachers vary and are often lacking in schools with large numbers of underprepared teachers.

— The state has one of the most comprehensive programs to help new teachers move into the profession, but many underprepared teachers are not eligible for the program.

— Only about one in five teachers say the ongoing training they receive after they start their careers has increased their effectiveness a lot.

— Less than a quarter of teachers say their ongoing training has adequate follow-up.

Besides calling for long-range improvements in teacher salaries and working conditions in general, the report recommends the state provide additional financial incentives to bring veteran teachers to low-performing schools.

“The most important thing for the state to do this (coming) year is to really zero in on these low-performing schools,” said Harvey Hunt, the center’s co-director.

The report also recommends eliminating emergency credentials for underprepared teachers by 2006 and making other improvements in teacher training and continuing education programs.

Mazzoni predicted the state will phase out emergency credentials and instead require new instructors without credentials to take part in intern programs. But she said it would be risky to set a firm cutoff date.

Hunt agreed that the Legislature and Davis have “already taken some pretty significant steps to address” problems cited by the report.

“The teacher preparation programs have been expanded and standards have been increased,” he said. ”(They’ve) expanded preparation options and dramatically expanded what we call induction — the shepherding of new teachers into the profession the first couple of years.”

He said those improvements were taken into account in making the study’s projections. But he added, “Some of these programs are so new that their impact can’t be identified.”

Funding for the study was provided by California State University and a number of private foundations.

SAN FRANCISCO — The executive director of the Presidio Trust has resigned amid allegations of financial mismanagement of efforts to convert the former Army post into a self-sustaining national park.

James Meadows’ decision to leave after four years on the job was announced Monday by the trust’s board of directors, which voted unanimously to accept the resignation.

Board chairman Toby Rosenblatt said the move was made after months of behind-the-scenes discussions between Meadows and the board. It came after published reports of a variety of troubles involving Meadows, including huge cost overruns on Presidio projects.

The Presidio Trust is a private organization authorized by an act of Congress in 1996 and is empowered to make the Presidio into a financially self-sustaining venture.

Recycling rate up across the bay

SAN FRANCISCO — San Franciscans are recycling at increasingly higher rates thanks to new programs that recycle everything from pizza boxes to demolition debris.

City officials announced Tuesday that 46 percent of the city’s trash was recycled last year, up from 42 percent in 1999.

Last year, San Francisco generated more than 1.6 million tons of trash. Of that, nearly 873,000 tons were sent to landfills and an estimated 748,000 tons were recycled.

Of the 1.35 million tons of garbage generated in 1999, 568,000 tons were recycled. This year’s figures will not be reported until late next year.

Officials attributed the jump to new programs for homes and businesses that are turning food waste from coffee filters to turkey bones into compost and finding new uses for construction debris from wood to wallboard.

American Eagle opens Oakland-L.A. route

OAKLAND — American Airlines, which dropped service between Oakland and Los Angeles after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said Monday its affiliate will add flights between those cities.

American Eagle will launch jet service between Oakland and Los Angeles international airports Feb. 5 with six daily roundtrips. Also, it is adding service from Los Angeles to Phoenix and Albuquerque, N.M., in February and from Los Angeles to Sacramento and Phoenix to San Jose in March.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, most airlines cut jobs and flights. American Airlines ended its four daily roundtrips between Oakland and Los Angeles. Rival United Airlines shut down United Shuttle and cut regional flights. United now flies five daily roundtrips between Oakland and Los Angeles.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Bar Association of San Francisco announced Tuesday the establishment of a three-year law school scholarship at Golden Gate University to be awarded to an Afghan woman.

“Through the tragic events of Sept. 11, the world has come to know the abuses inflicted by a succession of governments in Afghanistan on its own people, particularly its women,” said bar president Angela Bradstreet. “This scholarship is one step toward correcting these injustices.”

The Legal Advancement of Afghan Women Scholarship is intended to serve as a model for other law schools and bar associations throughout the United States.

Applications for the scholarship, which will be supervised by a joint selection committee from BASF and Golden Gate University, are currently available to interested students through BASF. The committee then will oversee the application and selection process, with the goal of choosing the scholarship winner by the end of the first quarter of 2002.

Preliminary steps have already been taken to identify potential candidates for the scholarship, which is open to female Afghan students from around the world.

SAN FRANCISCO — A serial rapist locked up at a state mental hospital nearly two weeks after a judge said he had no legal grounds to keep him in custody may be released Wednesday if the state Supreme Court refuses to hear the case.

Patrick Ghilotti, 45, has been confined at Atascadero State Hospital for four years under a state law that allows sexually violent offenders to be committed for treatment after completing their prison sentences.

Ghilotti, who has spent nearly half his life locked up, has been convicted of raping four Marin County women and has admitted to raping at least six others.

Marin County Superior Court Judge John S. Graham ruled Nov. 30 that Ghilotti should be released the following day, when his latest two-year commitment expired.

Instead, state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, at the urging of Gov. Gray Davis, filed an emergency petition with the high court asking it to block Ghilotti’s release, saying he remained a danger to the public.

Chief Justice Ronald M. George said Tuesday the high court will “likely take action” Wednesday.

Ghilotti had been slated to become California’s first sex predator released under a 1996 law under which hundreds of the state’s worst rapists and child molesters are sent to a mental hospital for treatment, a practice upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Two independent evaluators must certify the offender is mentally ill, a danger to society and likely to reoffend in order to commit him as a sexually violent predator. Once certified, the offender can be recommitted every two years.

In Ghilotti’s case, three Mental Health Department psychologists have said the twice-convicted rapist no longer meets sexually violent predator criteria.

SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers and state officials proposed a spate of new laws Tuesday to counter terrorism, including new wiretap rules and the death penalty for terror attacks.

A 17-point Assembly Republican plan would stiffen sentences for terror activities, including adding terrorism to the list of special circumstances for which the death penalty could be imposed.

It also offers more tools for investigators, such as easing wiretap laws that Democratic Attorney General Bill Lockyer said were written before the days when criminals could swap cell phones at a moment’s notice.

“It’s just logistically impossible” to get a new court-approved wiretap order each time a criminal switches phones, Lockyer told a joint legislative terrorism hearing Tuesday, the same day Republican lawmakers offered their plan.

The law should be adapted to specify the individual and whatever phones she or he uses, Lockyer said. Republicans additionally propose to expand that to include e-mail and Internet communications, and to bar Internet providers from informing customers they’re under investigation.

The proposals mirror the federal anti-terrorism law signed by President Bush last month.

Lockyer said the state may also need a better definition of terrorism crimes.

“What terrorists do is break other laws, so we get them one way or another,” Lockyer said. However, a better definition could help with investigations where other laws have not yet been broken, he said.

Though Lockyer said most terror incidents would be handled by federal investigators, Assembly Republicans proposed to beef up penalties under state law.

Those include up to 25 years in prison for spreading biological agents, and from 10 to 25 years for harboring or concealing a terrorist; committing or inciting terrorism, or conspiring to commit terrorism; laundering money for terrorists; or soliciting money or volunteers for terrorist organizations.

Terrorist threats or hoaxes could bring a prison sentence of up to six years, a $250,000 fine and restitution.

The GOP proposes to also remove the time limit on prosecuting terrorism, and require convicted terrorists to give DNA samples to be matched against a state database that might link them to other major crimes. It also attempts to make it tougher for suspected terrorists to get fake drivers’ licenses or permission to transport hazardous materials.

The Republican plan will be considered among other proposals being developed by Democratic Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg’s terrorism task force when it meets to develop recommendations Dec. 19, said Hertzberg spokesman Luke Breit.

“We’ll be taking anything that has to do with terrorism very seriously,” Breit said. The minority GOP proposals have no chance of passing without Democratic support.

Lockyer and Dallas Jones, who heads the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, said next year’s state budget should include money to beef up local health departments’ preparedness. More money also is needed to train and equip local emergency and law enforcement departments, Jones said.

The committee’s chair, Assemblyman Herb Wesson, D-Culver City, who is set to become Assembly speaker next year, predicted it will cost California “billions of dollars” to beef up its emergency response. He promised trying to get much of that money from the federal government “will be one of my highest priorities” as speaker.

Meanwhile, Gov. Gray Davis’ state committee on terrorism is expected to make about 100 recommendations to the governor this week. Davis spokesman Steve Maviglio said some of the recommendations may be made public.

PICO RIVERA — Visitors to Lyon Christmas Tree Farm come with saws in hand during the holiday season, looking for the perfect tree among rows of molded pines and cypresses growing under massive electric towers.

“The smell just makes it Christmas,” said Berta Henning, 55, whose family has been cutting fresh trees for about 30 years. “We just got to have that Christmas smell.”

But time is running out for this cut-your-own-tree operation, where 6,500 trees are grown in the narrow public utility plot between a housing track and a creek in this suburb 12 miles east of Los Angeles.

For nearly 40 years, urban Christmas tree farms flourished in the open spaces under California power lines. Over the last decade, they have been forced out of cities or out of business because of rising rents and aggressive redevelopment.

“It’s a tradition that’s going away,” Lyon farm owner Bud Lyon said.

“It’s economics,” he said.

Lyon has rented power line properties from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Southern California Edison. “When we first started leasing, we got our land and we kept the weeds down for them.”

But real estate prices caught up with growers in the 1990s. As the state’s population increased, development encroached and rents skyrocketed.

“You couldn’t grow enough trees to make a decent profit off it,” said Sam Minturn, executive director of the California Christmas Tree Association.

Home grown Christmas tree farms in the state gross about $140 million per year — a pittance compared to producers like Oregon, which supplies more than a quarter of the trees sold nationwide, Minturn said.

Tree farming under power lines started in the 1960s, when enterprising growers searching for cheap land close to customers found an ideal landlord in the local power companies.

During the 1970s and 80s, more than half of Southern California’s tree farms were located under power lines. Lyon may have one of the last ones in the state now, Minturn said.

When Lyon started in 1966, he leased 5 acres from the DWP for $50 an acre a year. Now the land rents for about $1,200 an acre a year and could nearly triple to $3,500 by 2004.

For utilities, higher rents meant getting fair market value for land they once gave away at bargain prices.

“They’ve been underpaying for a long, long time,” said Craig Luna, a DWP real estate manager. “We’re not interested in making a killing. We’re trying to get them to pay fair rent. ... There’s just not a lot of empty land laying around.”

Some Edison land once used for trees has been converted to more lucrative public storage.

“What we’re doing is no different from the general real estate market,” spokesman Steve Conroy said. “In essence, we’re utilizing the property in a way that lowers our operating costs, which benefits our customers.”

Only three more growing seasons remain for Lyon, 65, who has decided to retire when his lease expires in 2004.

If he accepted the terms of DWP’s proposed lease, his rent would equal nearly a third of his $60,000 in annual sales.

“When those trees go into the ground, that’s it,” he said, pointing to several cartons of unplanted saplings.

When Lyon retires, Henning’s search for that fresh pine scent will become more time-consuming.

MOUNTAIN VIEW — That epicenter of holiday shopping, the enclosed suburban mall that came to symbolize 1980s culture, is becoming a powerful engine for redeveloping California. Malls where millions of teen-agers had their first kiss and suburban families roamed the food courts are being razed and reborn as entirely new visions for life, work and shopping, architects say.

Stepping in where several malls have died, Californians are pioneering an old-fashioned return to downtown and Main Street, blending offices and restaurants with homes above stores.

Unlike the origin of shopping malls, which wooed stores out of downtown cores in the 1960s and 1970s, their renovations a generation later are considered urban infill projects.

“It’s ironic. When we built them they were on the edges, and now they’re in the center of our towns,” says Joe Scanga, principal at Calthorpe Associates, a Berkeley-based architecture firm.

In Mountain View, Scanga’s firm designed an 18-acre residential neighborhood known as The Crossings on the site of a Silicon Valley favorite: the Old Mill Mall. In the 1970s shoppers strolled among indoor trees, creeks and waterfalls.

Now Jim Li shops the site with real estate agent Lucy Wu — for a home among 397 townhouses, apartments and houses built on foundations of the crushed mall.

“It’s incredible what they did with a little bit of land here,” says Crossings resident Carolyn Herrick.

Herrick, a three-year resident of the neighborhood, with its front porch steps, narrow streets and designs that harken back to small towns before World War II, calls the atmosphere “Mary Poppins-like.”

Likewise, in downtown Pasadena, developers are building nearly 400 rentals above stores at the just-opened Paseo Colorado, a glitzy three-block successor to a failed downtown mall.

“These studios in Pasadena are going for $1,500 to $2,000 a month,” says Steven Bodzin, communications director for the San Francisco-based Congress for the New Urbanism. “They’re getting lines out the door for people who want this.”

Bodzin, representing an organization that advocates more growth in existing cities and less at suburban edges, says, “It’s clear this is a lot more of a success than what was there before.”

In San Jose, the dead Town and Country Mall is being razed and resurrected as an upscale downtown-style vision called Santana Row. Builders are promising 1,300 apartments and a hotel among its lushly landscaped plazas, stores and restaurants.

It opens next August.

In their time, enclosed malls were “slick engines for consumption, and people were blissed out with this kind of thing,” says Los Angeles architect Jon Jerde.

Jerde, who designed San Diego’s downtown Horton Plaza and Universal City Walk in Los Angeles, says malls kept out the rain and bugs, and were “the place where one man could own it all.”

Near the nation’s first mall, the 1956-era Southdale Mall in Edina, Minn., Jerde designed the cathedral of mall culture, the Mall of America.

Now, he says, more people want something old that’s new again: Main Street environments and downtown-like experiences. In his hometown of Long Beach, Jerde designed CityPlace, an urban mix of houses and stores now under construction to replace dying indoor Long Beach Plaza.

Although California has the most examples of these mall conversions, dead malls are being reborn across the nation. In Colorado, New York, Tennessee and Florida, local governments are kicking in hundreds of millions of dollars to help developers make a renaissance of their dying retail environments.

Collectively, sites renamed CityCenter and BelMar, New Roc City and Mizner Park house millions of square feet of stores and office space and thousands of apartments. In suburban Denver, a city hall moved into a vacated department store.

“They have a lot in common in how they’re redeveloping,” Bodzin says. “They’ve all moved away from relying on large individual anchors to having more smaller shops. And most have residential components.”

Dead malls, surrounded by acres of parking designed for the weeks just before Christmas, make ideal redevelopment sites, authorities say.

“It’s a huge national opportunity,” says Bodzin.

In 1999, Bodzin’s Congress for the New Urbanism commissioned a study by Price, WaterhouseCoopers that estimated 7 percent of America’s 2,800 malls are dead or languishing. It said 12 percent more are headed that way.

While most malls remain strong retail performers, and new malls keep opening, analysts say the less fortunate ones are undermined by a new constellation of trends: people with less money moving in nearby, competition from new giant, open-air regional shopping centers and people with less time to shop.

“People don’t shop at small stores anymore, and that’s what malls are comprised of. Everybody’s moving to a larger format,” says Peter Blackbird, 21, an amateur student of malls from Queensbury, N.Y.

Blackbird has visited dying suburban malls throughout the northeastern United States.

“Some of my fondest memories were in the hometown mall,” he says. Now he maintains a Web site of mall pictures and anecdotes called Deadmalls.com.

In California, while superstar renovations get most of the attention, other malls are also quietly finding new lives.

The San Fernando Valley’s Sherman Oaks Galleria, famous as the setting for the 1982 movie “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” has become an office center. Mountain View’s Mayfield Mall, famed during its 1972 opening for being a carpeted mall, is a campus for Hewlett-Packard Corp.

Likewise, Marysville’s Peach Tree Mall, flooded in 1986 and never reopened, is a complex for Yuba County government offices. In Fresno’s Manchester Center, Caltrans, call centers and a community college branch are nestled among stores.

“We built too many of them too fast,” says Calthorpe Associates’ Scanga. “In the 1980s there was a boom to have them. We should have had two when two were popular and we had 20.”

HOUSTON — The head of Compaq Computer Corp. told employees that the company is exploring the company’s future prospects should its $24 billion merger with Hewlett-Packard Co. fall through.

Last weekend Michael D. Capellas, chief executive of Compaq, e-mailed a memo to employees explaining that the Houston-based computer maker must “maintain a pragmatic view of our business and a clear focus on the future” given opposition by the Hewlett and Packard families to the merger.

Capellas said in the memo that Compaq would focus on large corporate customers with packages of software, hardware and related services “whether we are part of the new HP or a stand-alone company.”

He also reiterated his support of the merger.

“Although we are disappointed, we continue to believe that the merger is in the best interests of shareholders, employees, customers and partners,” Capellas wrote.

The Hewlett and Packard families, which control 18 percent of HP stock, have both said they oppose the deal. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, which holds 10.4 percent of HP shares, said Friday its interests would be better served without the deal.

HP and Compaq say they will continue to talk up the benefits of the deal in hopes of ultimately winning shareholder support. If either company were to pull out of the deal, it would owe the other $675 million.

Analysts have said for the deal to win approval at this point, two-thirds of HP’s institutional investors would have to vote yes.

HP shares were down 99 cents, or 4 percent to $22.01 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange, where Compaq shares were off 21 cents, or 2 percent to $9.49.

SAN JOSE — Internet search engine Google Inc. announced Tuesday that it now offers direct access to more than 3 billion Web documents, including newsgroup postings back to 1981.

The company’s index, searchable at www.google.com, previously linked to about 2.5 billion documents. Its archive of Usenet postings had gone back about six years.

“This announcement is an important step in Google’s ongoing effort to provide search services that are fast, easy to use and that help people find the information they need,” said Larry Page, Google’s co-founder.

The Usenet archive, available in Google Groups, now contains 700 million messages in 35,000 categories. Usenet is an Internet-based bulletin board that predates the World Wide Web.

“The Google Groups Usenet archive reveals a detailed view into two decades of history – that’s 10 years’ worth of content that existed before the birth of the Web,” said Sergey Brin, another Google founder.

Google also deployed a feature that pulls up headlines relevant to a search from various newspapers and news agencies.

Since it started in 1998, Google has developed one of the world’s most popular search engines, using a method that sifts through Web pages to list results based on the relevancy to the search request.

SAN FRANCISCO — Excite@Home received court approval Tuesday to continue high-speed Internet service for about 2.1 million subscribers through February under a series of deals that will generate $355 million for the bankrupt company while preserving the right to sue its cable partners for alleged abuses.

The agreements approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Thomas Carlson ensure that customers who buy the Excite@Home service through six cable companies will retain their high-speed connections until they are switched to other networks.

Excite@Home subscribers who received the service through AT&T haven’t been as fortunate.

Redwood City-based Excite@Home unplugged the AT&T customers earlier this month after AT&T refused to negotiate new terms for continuing the service.

AT&T says it has switched its all 850,000 @Home customers to its own cable network, but many customers have complained about connection problems and sluggish downloading speeds.

Excite@Home’s bondholders threatened to block the deals last week, but dropped their opposition Tuesday after receiving assurances the new contracts protect what might be the company’s most valuable remaining asset — the right to seek damages against the cable companies.

The company’s management, bondholders and unsecured creditors allege that Excite@Home’s demise stemmed from alleged abuses of power among cable giants AT&T, Cox and Comcast, which all held Excite@Home stock and board seats.

An in-depth analysis of the potential damages hasn’t been done yet, but the creditors believe “a lot of money” lost in ExciteAtHome’s bankruptcy may be recovered in lawsuits, said William Weintraub, an attorney for bondholders owed $750 million.

ExciteAtHome also is considering lawsuits against the cable companies, said company attorney Suzzane Uhland.

The new agreements prevent ExciteAtHome and its creditors from suing Cox and Comcast for saddling the company with unprofitable contracts and building their own high-speed cable networks at the same time they continued to use the ExciteAtHome service.

ExciteAtHome and the creditors retain their right to sue for a wide variety of alleged abuses dating back to the company’s formation in the mid-1990s.

Because it didn’t sign the new contracts, AT&T remains open to all legal claims by ExciteAtHome and its creditors. The company’s shareholders also have threatened a major lawsuit against AT&T, which owned most of ExciteAtHome’s voting stock and controlled the company’s board until October.

The six cable companies that signed the new contracts agreed to waive their right to sue ExciteAtHome for alleged violations of the earlier agreements. ExciteAtHome had estimated it might be liable for damages ranging between $290 million and $500 million if the cable companies sued.

Tuesday’s court approval clears the way for ExciteAtHome to begin winding down its operations. As part of the process, ExciteAtHome has indicated it will start trimming its remaining work force of about 1,300 employees.

Management is trying to cuts cost so it can hold on to most of the $355 million due under the new agreements. After expenses, ExciteAtHome hopes to net at least $205 million from the contracts.

When ExciteAtHome filed for bankruptcy in September, AT&T agreed to buy its high-speed network for $307 million. Bondholders protested the deal, claiming AT&T engineered the bankruptcy in an attempt to buy the cable network at a deep discount, resulting in a showdown that produced the new contracts and prompting AT&T to withdraw its offer.

SANTA ANA — The fight between Playboy pinup Anna Nicole Smith and her stepson over the fortune left by her late husband went to federal court Tuesday with lawyers arguing over whether the Texas oilman intended to leave her an inheritance worth $474 million.

In his opening statement, attorney Phil Boesch, who represents Smith, said J. Howard Marshall had always intended that the former stripper and Playmate of the Year get a share of his inheritance.

But his son, E. Pierce Marshall, used every means to block it, Boesch argued.

There was “a declaration of war” that included commandeering his father’s stock in a petroleum company to keep Smith from gaining control of it, Boesch said.

Smith met Howard Marshall at a strip club where she was working as a lap dancer. They married at a drive-in chapel in Houston in 1994, when she was 26 and he was 89.

The current hearing is the latest round in a long-running legal battle in which Smith has tried to claim the huge inheritance from Howard Marshall, who died in 1995.

Pierce Marshall, 63, is appealing a previous California bankruptcy court’s decision to award Smith $474 million from the estate.

At Tuesday’s hearing before U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter, Boesch said he will present a memo to Pierce Marshall from a lawyer in which a plan is allegedly laid out to seize control of Howard Marshall’s assets before his death in order to leave “less for mischief and less for ’Miss Cleavage.”’

Boesch said Smith, whose real name is Vickie Lynn Marshall, did not take advantage of the aging tycoon and even refused his initial marriage proposals to pursue her career.

Smith sat quietly in the courtroom dressed in a camel knit sweater and pants, occasionally dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. Pierce Marshall sat grimly across the aisle.

His lawyers.argued that his father intentionally left Smith out of a living trust established to oversee his estate because he feared she was unable to handle money and would be easily fleeced.

By doling out more than $6 million in jewelry, real estate and clothing to Smith, Howard Marshall intended that she would become financially independent while he taught her sound financial practices, lawyer Rusty Hardin said.

Hardin said Smith had gone through all the gifts by the time she filed for bankruptcy in 1996.

Both sides, however, agreed that Smith had played an important role in reinvigorating the tycoon who had lapsed into despondency after the 1991 death of his second wife.

“We have never contended that (Marshall) didn’t care for Vickie Marshall,” Hardin said.

Hardin also defended his client.

“Pierce Marshall is not the evil brother in the attic,” Hardin said. “He’s a guy who did his father’s bidding all his life...J. Howard was in charge to the end.”

Judge Carter decided in August that Smith must testify before he can decide on whether the previous ruling granting her $474 million will be reinstated.

Carter also said he will need to hear testimony from Pierce Marshall.

Smith filed for bankruptcy in 1996 in Los Angeles, where she moved after her marriage. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Samuel Bufford awarded her the $474 million last December after sanctioning Pierce Marshall for failing to produce materials requested by the court and interfering with Smith’s expectation of a “gift” from her husband’s estate.

After a contentious trial, a probate court in Texas ruled in May that the 1993 Playboy Playmate of the Year had no claim to the estate.

Carter then threw out the original ruling in California that awarded the $474 million to Smith, pending his own review.

The judge said testimony from Smith, Marshall and others is necessary because the claims and counterclaims between the two are too “wildly at odds” for him to rule based on court transcripts alone.

WASHINGTON — Wild horses put up for adoption by the Bureau of Land Management continue to be slaughtered, in some cases within weeks of the owner gaining title of the animal, according to the latest BLM records.

The quick turnaround has critics questioning how aggressively BLM is enforcing a rule requiring adopters to swear that they don’t plan to sell the horse to slaughter.

“Not only is BLM not actually prosecuting people, but they’re not even doing the investigation to try to figure it out and it seems like they don’t want to know,” said Howard Crystal, an attorney for the Fund for Animals, whose lawsuit led to the no-slaughter clause.

Forty wild horses adopted out by BLM were sent to slaughter houses in the six-month period covered by the records, four of them within four weeks of the owner receiving title to the horse.

Two others were slaughtered within two months of being titled.

Owners must raise the horse for a year before receiving title. BLM spokeswoman Celia Boddington said, in that year, the bureau does everything possible to ensure horses don’t go to slaughter. Once the horse is titled it is the owner’s personal property, and it can be sold to a new owner who can sell the animal to a slaughterhouse without violating the law.

As a result, more than 600 horses gathered in BLM roundups across the West have ended up being killed since 1998.

In the latest BLM records, covering Aug. 28, 2000, to Feb. 26, 2001, three of the four horse owners whose horses were slaughtered within a month of being titled had sold the horse to a third party. The fourth owner could not be reached.

Two horses titled Nov. 17, 2000, to Jimmy Williams of Washington, Iowa, were slaughtered 20 days later, according to BLM logs.

“I just sold them to somebody. I didn’t have any idea where they’d end up,” said Williams. He said he was not contacted by the BLM.

However, the quick turnaround from adoption to slaughter seems to be less frequent than it once was.

In the most recent six-month period, six horses went to slaughter within three months of being titled, a rate of one per month. By contrast, a BLM report covering March 1998 to September 1999 showed 186 horses were slaughtered within three months of being titled, a rate of nearly 10 per month.

Crystal suggests the problem may be worse than it seems. Because of an oversight, BLM did not give the Fund for Animals records for late 1999 and early 2000. The records should be completed by next week.

Last week, the Fund For Animals asked a federal judge to block BLM’s plans to round up 21,000 of the estimated 48,000 horses roaming Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming over five years.

“Those horses need homes so BLM is under increased pressure to adopt out and title horses,” said Crystal. That could result with more horses going to slaughter houses, he said.

The group also argues that thinning the horse population so much could leave herds cut off from one another and ravaged by inbreeding, threatening their survival.

In the year ending Sept. 30, the BLM had adopted out 7,630 wild horses. Since the adoption program began in 1973, 186,000 horses have been placed.

WASHINGTON — The government is spending $7 billion to decontaminate a former nuclear weapons plant in Colorado and turn it into a wildlife refuge. But critics said Tuesday that the cleanup will still leave the soil too polluted.

Legislation before Congress would officially designate the Rocky Flats site, 15 miles northwest of Denver, a wildlife refuge after cleanup is completed.

Rocky Flats is contaminated with tons of plutonium and other radioactive materials, in buildings and in the soil, after years of weapons work. The Energy Department and its civilian contractor will decide early next year how clean the site should become.

A report by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research contends that the residual contamination levels being considered by the government are 40 times greater than what would be allowed if the land is used for something other than a wildlife refuge.

“We have no control over what will happen at Rocky Flats in the future,” said LeRoy Moore, a member of a citizens’ group in Boulder, Colo., that is monitoring the cleanup. About 2.5 million people live within 50 miles of the facility.

While the site stretches across more than 6,000 acres, less than 200 acres are contaminated. While much of the soil will be trucked away, acres will remain contaminated.

The report by IEER, a research group long involved in nuclear watchdog activities, contends that designating the area a wildlife refuge will allow the cleanup to be less stringent.

“We don’t oppose the designation of this site as a wildlife refuge as a short-term way to keep the public off the site,” said Arjun Mahkijani, a nuclear physicist who heads the institute in Takoma Park, Md. But he said cleanup standards should take into account other likely uses of the land, including farming or residential development, where people are more likely to become exposed.

Plutonium and other radioisotopes that will be left over in the soil would be expected to remain dangerous for thousands of years, he said. After the cleanup, the report said, the soil should be left with no more than 10 pico-curies of radioactivity per gram of soil, far cleaner than what the Energy Department has been considering.

Jeremy Karpatkin, a spokesman for the Energy Department’s Rocky Flats project office, said no decision has been made on the level of residual contamination. Meeting the level sought by Makhijani, though, “would involve spending hundreds of millions of dollars unnecessarily for very little risk reduction to the public,” he said, even taking into account various uses for the land.

Preliminary analysis from the department concludes that soil contamination could be as high as 490 pico-curies. It could still fall within acceptable risk levels of no more than one additional cancer per 10,000 individuals if the land becomes a wildlife refuge.

The maximum contamination allowed would fall to 173 pico-curies if the land became “rural residential,” according to the DOE analysis cited by Rocky Flats officials.

Whatever the final standard, “We will provide a safe and effective cleanup of Rocky Flats,” said Karpatkin. The government already has spent nearly $3 billion on the cleanup, and will spend another $4 billion over the next five years, he said.

Makhijani said the use of wildlife designations is a way to cut cleanup costs at Rocky Flats and, possibly, at other contaminated weapons sites in South Carolina, Tennessee, Idaho and Washington state.

“This is a foot in the door for relaxation of cleanup standards,” he said.

TUCSON, Ariz. — U.S. Customs Service special agents Tuesday found a sophisticated drug tunnel running directly under the border between a wash in Mexico and a Nogales home facing the international fence.

Smugglers are believed to have moved 956 pounds of cocaine and 839 pounds of marijuana — estimated to be worth about $21 million — through the 85-foot dirt tunnel since late summer, when they began using it, said Vince Iglio, Customs acting special agent in charge.

All those drugs were seized at other sites, and two people were arrested Nov. 28 in possession of the cocaine, Iglio said.

“We believe that the tunnel was under construction for many months,” he said. “We had information that the actual smuggling started 2 1/2 to three months ago, and we surveilled it the whole time and we’re satisfied that we seized everything that came through.”

The rectangular-shaped tunnel, shored up throughout with lumber like a mine, was “one of the most complicated we’ve seen in that the type of construction was complex,” Iglio said.

The 4-foot high tunnel was strung with electricity and some tracks had been laid inside, suggesting that its operators planned to move drugs through on a dolly.

A mud-encrusted mechanic’s dolly, with a long rope attached, was found stored in the bedroom where a 30-foot vertical shaft leading to the tunnel emerged in a corner of the room, under wooden flooring and carpeting. A wide variety of lumber, from plywood to 2-by-16 beams, also was found in the house.

The tunnel ran 40-some feet, under the house and street on the U.S. side to the 10-foot steel-mat fence that separates the two countries, and a similar distance on the Mexican side.

The owner of the Nogales home does not reside there and is not believed to be implicated, while the occupant has not been found, Iglio said. Investigation will continue of others who were identified during the surveillance, he added.

On the Mexican side, the tunnel opening was cut out of the side of a concrete wash, with the hole replaced by a steel utility plate about 18 inches by 18 inches, resealed with cement each time the smugglers used it to bring in a load “and make it look like it was never touched,” Iglio said.

The care taken to disguise the entrance suggests that the smugglers were intent on keeping it from both Mexican officials and smuggling competitors, Iglio said.

He said the tunnel’s sophistication is a sign of the creativity, lengths and expense that smugglers will go to, but it also shows that “we are forcing them to use extreme measures to smuggle narcotics into the United States.

”

Iglio compared the new tunnel in quality of construction to an elaborate, concrete-lined, electrified 300-foot tunnel found in May 1990. That tunnel ran about 30 feet underground across the Mexican border between a home in Agua Prieta, Mexico, and a warehouse in Douglas with secret entrances on both sides, including a hydraulic lift.

“It’s more similar to that tunnel than to any of the others (in Nogales), and a true tunnel,” Iglio said.

The tunnel was the eighth discovered in Nogales since 1995 but the first in the border city to run directly beneath the international boundary.

All the others previously found in Nogales have led into sewer lines feeding into the Nogales Wash, a concrete-lined storm drainage canal system that flows north from Mexico beneath the international border into Nogales.

Though Customs’ highest priority is protecting the border from terrorist activities, the agency has “reprioritized our resources to address those persons who may wrongly believe that this time may be an opportune time to smuggle narcotics into the United States,” Iglio said.

Opinion

Editorials

SAN FRANCISCO — NBC announced Monday it is buying San Jose-based KNTV for $230 million from Granite Broadcasting Corp., giving the network an owned-and-operated station in the San Francisco Bay area.

NBC programming has been broadcast in the area by San Francisco-based KRON, which was acquired by Young Broadcasting for $737 million in July 2000. Young later turned KRON, Channel 4, into an independent channel after balking at NBC’s terms for continued network affiliation.

NBC’s purchase comes after weeks of negotiations between the network, Young and Granite, and puts to rest speculation that NBC would buy KRON back from Young. Instead, NBC gets its own station in the nation’s fifth-largest market for a fraction of what Young paid.

“I think NBC got an affiliate in a top-five market for a very good price,” said Kagan World Media analyst Robin Flynn. She compared the deal to the 1999 CBS purchase of a Dallas station for $485 million, pointing out that the Texas hub is a smaller market than San Francisco.

“It really is practically a steal for NBC,” Flynn said.

KNTV takes over NBC programming on Jan. 1, reaching viewers on AT&T cable channel 3 and broadcast channel 11. This may frustrate about 118,000 non-cable viewers in parts of San Francisco and other areas, since KNTV broadcasts from farther south and its signal doesn’t match the footprint of KRON’s antenna, on the highest point in the city.

“Obviously, NBC is aggressively looking for ways to improve the signal, including possibly relocating the transmitter farther north,” Cory Shields, an NBC spokesman, said Monday.

According to NBC research, there are 2.4 million television households in the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose market; 1.9 million have cable, and 200,000 have satellite dishes.

About 400,000 get only the over-the-air signal, and about 100,000 of these households couldn’t get NBC on KRON either because of the Bay Area’s coastal mountains and other impediments.

Whenever networks change stations, some viewers have trouble finding their favorite shows, but NBC is counting on a big boost from the Winter Olympics in February, which should encourage people to seek out the network’s new home.

Granite will operate the station as an NBC affiliate until the deal closes and gets government approval, expected in the first half of 2002. NBC is also in the process of acquiring 11 Telemundo stations, including San Francisco’s KSTS.

Deborah McDermott, executive vice president of operations for Young Broadcasting, says KRON would use expanded news broadcasts to keep its current viewers tuned in. She predicted NBC will have a tough time earning new viewers at the expense of KRON.

“For the San Francisco market, this is a new television station. Whenever you introduce something new in the market it takes a long time,” McDermott said.

“People are going to tune in (to NBC) for ‘Friends’ but they’re not going to tune in for the news.

“I think they’ve got a tough job ahead of them and we’re totally prepared to be an independent.”

Shares of NBC’s parent company, General Electric, rose 65 cents to close at $38.30 on the New York Stock Exchange, while Granite shares rose 48 cents to close at $2.55 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Shares of Young Broadcasting fell 82 cents, closing at $16.55 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Many of us know the YMCA as a positive place which brings together the diverse communities of Berkeley like no other, a sort of town square with walls. However, I am saddened to see the role the YMCA is playing for the parking lobby, despite its mission of building strong and healthy communities.

The YMCA already heavily subsidizes parking, and not just parking for those with special needs – the YMCA gives out a parking validation system which for the casual user more than pays for YMCA membership. Yet extensive efforts over the past two years to bring the Y around to embracing and encouraging the healthier, gentler modes have been very frustrating.

It is one thing to subsidize low-income, children’s, women’s, disabled, and other programs. It’s quite another to take the position that driving is not only to be subsidized, but is all that will be supported. Watching the Y’s director (whose position in the parking-heavy Downtown Berkeley Association may direct his shunting of the Y’s mission) campaigning for more taxpayer-subsidized parking is appalling. When Y employees were the most prominent speakers at one hearing I had to wonder, were they paid? Were they pressured? Or just misinformed? Misusing the Y’s influence this way is truly harmful to Berkeley.

For the Y to be true to its members, it needs to be true to its mission and support a healthier, stronger community. That means supporting a vision of Downtown where it’s safe and convenient to walk, roll and enjoy transit, and actively helping its members embrace those modes.

SAN DIEGO – An American Airlines flight about to take off for Chicago was delayed more than three hours on the runway Sunday after a fake grenade used to test security screening rolled out of a carry-on bag.

A woman was in custody and authorities were trying to determine how she ended up with a bag belonging to a security screener that contained the phony grenade, said Rita Vandergaw, spokeswoman for the Unified Port of San Diego, which runs Lindbergh Field.

The fake grenade is used as a prop to test the security screening system.

The passenger may have inadvertently picked up the bag at a security checkpoint, Vandergaw said.

“She made a big mistake one way or the other,” Vandergaw said. “Whether it was inadvertent or not, she shouldn’t have had that bag.”

Flight 788 was scheduled to depart for Chicago at 1:30 p.m.

After boarding the plane, the passenger pulled a jacket out of the bag and the phony grenade rolled down the aisle, Vandergaw said.

The pilot brought the MD-80 to a halt and city firefighters and Department of Defense crews were sent to the scene. A nearby street briefly was closed.

The fake grenade was removed and the plane returned to the gate. All passengers were taken off the aircraft and rescreened. The airplane was rechecked before it departed at 4:45 p.m.

The Berkeley Fire Department is offering several tips that could help people reduce the chances of being a fire casualty this holiday season.

Candles might add to the holiday spirit, but they should be kept away from decorations and other combustible materials. It is also important to keep all candles and matches away from children.

Candles should also not be used as Christmas tree ornaments. When buying Christmas lights, buy only those that have been laboratory tested, and always unplug them before you leave or go to sleep.

It is also important to buy a fresh tree and keep it that way by watering it daily.

Dried-up trees are extremely flammable, and all trees should be kept away from exits and heat sources.

The Berkeley Fire Department is also warning against the use of Christmas tree fire alarms, or fire alarms that look like ornaments, which have not been approved by the State of California Fire Marshal for use on any tree. Since Christmas tree fires move extremely fast, the devices are inappropriate for use on trees and their use might give people a false sense of security.

And as always, it is good common sense to check the batteries on your smoke alarms and make sure that the detectors are working properly.

For more information on these tips, contact the Berkeley office of emergency services at (510) 981-5605.

SHAFTER — Seven people were killed when a minivan collided with an Amtrak train on Wednesday near Bakersfield, authorities said.

Two people were ejected from the minivan and five others were found dead inside the vehicle, which was pushed about a half-mile down the tracks, said Officer Greg Williams, a California Highway Patrol spokesman.

The victims’ names were not immediately released.

Amtrak 714 en route from Oakland to Bakersfield collided with the Ford Aerostar around 4 p.m., said Vernae Graham, an Amtrak spokeswoman.

The collision, which took place on a section of railroad with only one set of tracks, delayed two other Amtrak trains. They were being held Wednesday night at a site near the crash while authorities investigated the crash.

Officials said they hoped to have the rail line reopened by Thursday morning.

The cause of the collision was under investigation, but authorities said the warning lights and bells were working at the crossing.

“We don’t know if the driver tried to beat the train or flat didn’t see it,” Williams said.

None of the 70 passengers and crew members on the train were injured.

The train was traveling about 79 mph at the time of the collision near Highway 43 in Shafter, a small town about 16 miles northwest of Bakersfield.

The passengers remained on the train immediately after the crash and were later taken by bus to Bakersfield.

Police Blotter

Wednesday December 12, 2001

A woman thwarted an armed, would-be robber simply by walking away from him Monday evening, according to Lt. Cynthia Harris of the Berkeley Police Department.

The victim said she was walking home around 10:30 p.m. She was approached by a man near the corner of Fifth and Addison streets. The man pointed a handgun at the woman and said: “I need more money.” The woman said she had no money and kept walking. The man did not follow her.

The victim later said the suspect appeared to be intoxicated.

The suspect is described as an olive-skinned male, possibly of Latino or East Indian descent. He is around 5 feet, 9 inches tall and of heavy build. He was wearing a gray, hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans.

The California Attorney General’s Office recommends victims of robberies to always comply with a criminal’s demands.

Another attempted robbery occurred early Saturday morning, according to Harris.

Shortly after midnight, a man walked into the Valero gas station at 1894 University Ave. The man pointed a large-caliber handgun at the clerk and told him to hand over all the money in the cash register.

The clerk told the suspect that he did not have the key to the register, whereupon the suspect fled the scene.

The suspect is described as an African-American male between 25 and 30 years old, standing 5 feet 7 inches to 5 feet 9 inches tall and of stocky build. He was wearing a dark jacket, dark pants and a dark beanie cap.